The Material Girl dropped by the UAE’s capital for a couple of shows over the weekend, and this time of year it is way too hot to be standing outside for hours.

But the Sunday show was her first show in the Arab world, and it was a big deal locally. Something like 20,000 people were willing to shell out from 495 dirhams (to enter the grounds) to 2,295 for a “VIP” package — which may have included a chair.

(That’s $135 to $625, in U.S. currency.)

As Snoop Dogg did before her, Madonna seems to have scandalized part of the audience. The threshold for scandalizing is pretty low here, admittedly.

What I don’t get is what prudish people expect from artists of that sort. Did you expect family-style entertainment from acts that have been crossing the boundaries of “refined tastefulness” for decades?

Snoop dropped a batch of F-bombs, and he is still being talked about. And criticized.

What did viewers find most disturbing about Madonna’s gigs? Two things:

1. She didn’t come on stage until 10:40 p.m., the first night, and concertgoers had expected her to begin her performance at 9. The wait was exacerbated by the heat, which left thousands of fans sweating profusely.

2. Some Hebrew was used in the show, and the UAE is (officially) strongly anti-Israel. Though, to be sure, those most outraged by Israel’s national language didn’t seem to have been at the show.

Here is the event story done on a bang-bang deadline by the news department of The National. Lots of discussion about heat, and water, and misters.

Today, the features department weighed in with an analytical piece, noting that the second night of Madonna’s 86-date, 30-country MDNA 2012 tour seemed a bit on the dark side.

Apparently, Madonna armed herself with an AK-47 (prop) and killed would-be attackers, on stage. Some violent images, that is.

The discussion, and the entertainment, probably are good for the city and the country. It provides an outlet for the significant chunk of the population which is enamored of Western pop culture. And it also brings business and activity to Yas Island, about a 30-minute drive from downtown Abu Dhabi.

The site is best known for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but it has too many days, still, during the year where nothing much happens out there, and the seven hotels on the island seem to be withering on the vine.

What the city still needs is an indoor arena of  the Staples Center sort: Modern, big, with the amenities fans expect and are willing to pay for. Those 20,000 people, and Madonna’s act (which arrived on three Boening 747 cargo jets), should have been in an air-conditioned indoors space.

Most fans stood or sat on the ground at the Madonna concerts, which were held in open fields. In a country with extreme temperatures, that’s not a good way to consume your culture — even for the most rabid of fans.