Mariah Carey. Usher. Beyoncé. Nelly Furtado. Enrique Iglesias.
These are some of the “stars” who took millions of dollars from Libya’s Muammar al-Qadhafi and his sons to perform at various private performances, including a 2008 New Year’s Eve party on the island of St. Barts.
These megabuck performances have become a fact of life, albeit a weird and somewhat shameless one, for today’s celebrities.
But there’s a stark difference between playing for some oligarch’s daughter’s sweet sixteen party, and playing for Qadhafi. The former might be mercenary, maybe a little seedy…but it’s not necessarily evil.
But playing for Qadhafi? Doing that is accepting blood money, pure and simple. Any of them who claim otherwise, or claim ignorance, are simply lying.
Of course now that they’ve been called out, a few of them are backpedaling as quick as they can. Beyoncé and Furtado have reportedly donated their Qadhafi money to charity. Expect the others to follow suit.
Is that penance enough? Not for me to say. I wouldn’t mind seeing them and their ilk boycotted, but since I’m not exactly patrons of their product I’d feel a little hollow calling for that boycott. It’d be a bit like the Selma Bus Boycott being organized by folks who never used mass transit.
But I sure don’t mind calling them out, and pointing an accusatory finger at them and every other greedy pig willing to take money from a monster like Qadhafi.
So…Usher, Mariah, all the rest: I hope it was worth it. It was a nice payday, no doubt about it, but the scale of the thing doesn’t change its nature. You’ve defined yourself by your greed, and hopefully you’ll always be remembered for what you are: Qadhafi’s whores.
