Monday, February 28, 2011

Beyonce, Mariah, Usher, Pressured to Give Away Qaddafi Money



Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Usher and 50 Cent are among the artists being pressured to return money received after performing for Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi and his family members, RollingStone.com reports.

Carey reportedly was paid $1 million to sing for Qaddafi's son, Muatassim, Libya's national-security adviser, at a New Year's Eve party on St. Barts in 2008. 50 Cent performed for Qaddafi's son in 2005 and Beyonce and Usher performed at a party in 2009--all for undisclosed sums of money.

Beyonce performed for Qaddafi at Nikki Beach, at a nightclub on the Caribbean island of St Barts. Beyoncé was paid $2 million to strut her stuff before an audience which contained Qaddafi junior, her husband, Jay-Z, fellow singer Usher, and Hollywood celebrity Lindsay Lohan.

Ah, sweet blood money..huh, Beyonce?

"If it were me, it would go to charity," says Buck Williams, agent for R.E.M. and Widespread Panic told Rolling Stone. David T. Viecelli, agent for Arcade Fire added, "Hopefully donate it to a charity that somehow assists some of the people who have suffered at the hands of that regime."

Nelly Furtado announced Monday on Twitter that she intends to donate the $1 million she earned in 2007 performing for Qaddafi's family. "In 2007, I received 1million$ from the Qaddafi clan to perform a 45 min. Show for guests at a hotel in Italy," the singer Tweeted. "I am going to donate the $."

"I don't think most artists go into [performing at a party like this] with that kind of in-depth focus, [of] how each country is governed and what goes on inside each country," sums up Dennis Arfa, agent for Metallica, Billy Joel and Stewart. "Not every artist is a humanitarian. In more cases than not, for people, greed rules."

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