Friendship With Michael Jackson
A long time friend of American pop legend Michael Jackson, Abdullah loaned his friend £2.2million to pay legal fees after the singer was tried for child molestation in California in 2005. After the successful defence and dismissal of all charges, Abdullah invited Jackson, his children and personal staff to stay in Bahrain, which Jackson took up on 30 June 2005.
As part of a plan to revive Jackson's career with the release of a new album, after Hurricane Katrina Sheikh Abdullah suggested that Jackson record a song Abdullah had written as a charity single at a recording studio in London, "I Have This Dream." Jackson undertook the recording session in London, but the single was never released through the co-owned record label 2 Seas Group. Jackson left the Kingdom in May 2006 for Ireland.
In November 2008, after trying to recover £4.7 million costs from Jackson which the singer said were gifts, Abdullah sued the singer through the mutually agreed High Court in London. Abdullah claims that despite having paid the $2.2m (£1.5m) cost for Jackson to record a song intended to benefit the victims of Hurricane Katrina, the singer failed to attend the studio for the final recording and the song was never released. Bankim Thanki QC, representing Abdullah, told the High Court that the day after Jackson's criminal trial ended in California, that he recorded one of the songs which Abdullah wanted released as a charity single to help victims of the Indian ocean tsunami, and that Sheikh Abdullah felt "a strong sense of personal betrayal" after forming "a close personal relationship" with the singer.
Read more about this topic: Abdullah Bin Hamad Bin Isa Al-Khalifa
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