Майкл Джексон

mjOlik Shelley Frost was playing the harp at the Palace of the Lost City hotel in Sun City, South Africa, when a surprise admirer – one who many musicians could only dream of meeting – came up and congratulated her on the performance. It was Michael Jackson. “I was playing at a high-profile wedding in 1997 when I felt a tap on my shoulder,’’ says Shelley, founder-director of The Fridge, a leading artist-booking agency and venue in Dubai. She turned around to face the pop superstar clad in his military regalia, complete with epaulettes. “His manager had told me that he was very keen on meeting me because he had a passion for the harp,” says Shelley. After finishing the piece, she had a chance to chat to the star. She met him three times over the next two years and says, “he turned out to be a lovely person, gentle, kind and very interested in the harp.” That was Shelley’s first encounter with an A-list star. Since then she has opened for Spanish tenor Jose Carreras at the Dubai leg of his 2009 world tour. She has also played with Kanye West in Europe and in the US.