Bravo and much respect to Nelly Furtado, who Tweeted that she cannot keep the $1 million she was paid for a private concert for Libya's Gadhafi family. Furtado will donate the sum to charity.
Continued silence from Beyoncé, Usher, Mariah Carey, 50 Cent and others, who were paid millions to perform for Mutassim Gadhafi, the son of Col. Muammar Gadhafi and the Libyan national security adviser coordinating the bloody crackdown that has killed thousands in the past two weeks. In addition to ordering soldiers and mercenaries to spray civilian crowds with machine guns, the Gadhafis have also ordered helicopter and bomber strikes.
Those celebrities' position has become even more tenuous: The United Nations has referred Mutassim Gadhafi, his brothers and Col. Muammar Gadhafi to the International Criminal Court in The Hague for war crimes.
Music industry sources acknowledge most artists are "probably not" told exactly who pays for many of these extravagant private parties ... but most do not care. Metallica agent Dennis Arfa tells Rolling Stone, "Not every artist is a humanitarian. In more cases than not, for people, greed rules."
It's a good thing that Beyoncé and Usher already cashed their checks. The United States is moving warships toward Libya and has frozen $30 billion in Libyan assets. Britain has also frozen billions in Libyan assets.
She made that money in 2007. I would imagines she spent that already. Now if she wants to make a donation that's one thing but I'm not seeing how this is such a grand gesture. The Qaddafi family has been linked to many groups that have been labeled terrorist organizations, including the group that committed the lockerbie bombing. One of those sons allegedly beat his wife damn near to death.
Perhaps she should have done her research and not perform in the first place sense her conscience now bothers her.
Posted by: FREELEO | 01 March 2011 at 14:06
Yes Freeleo, she should keep the money and use it yo build a time machine and go back to 2007 and refuse the concert. That is the only way she can make amends for her wrong.
Posted by: ger | 01 March 2011 at 14:58
The fact that she is trying to make amends by donating the funds to charity shows that she's got a heart. Now, us Queens may say that she shouldn't have taken it in the first place, but I'm sure that we all have done something (or someone) that we have later regretted and wished to God that we could take it back, so let's cut Nelly some slack. At least she's trying to make amends. Now let's see if Miss Beyonce and Usher follow suit.
Posted by: Distant Lover | 01 March 2011 at 15:36
"I'm not seeing how this is such a grand gesture ..."
Because keeping the money is an even "grander" gesture. And donating a million dollars to any charity is sooooo worthless.
Freeleo, you sound like a stan at MediaTakeOut. It is one thing to say Nelly Furtado (or Beyoncé, Usher, Mariah Carey, 50 Cent) does NOT have to donate the money. Because they do not have to. But to start blaming and attacking Nelly Furtado for not "doing her research" ... and giving a pass to Beyonce, Mariah and gay bashing Usher and Fiddy? #FAIL
And werent you defending Breezy all those months after he beat Rihanna to a pulp? YOU really don't want to go there.
You're right about one thing. They all should have done their research. But at least Furtado has a conscience. The others? Not so much.
This blog is like clockwork. You can always count on black gay men to crawl out the woodwork and defend gay bashing athletes or RnB singers who beat their girlfriends. And the same ones are always MIA on anything to do with civil or human rights, or black gay teens being bashed.
Posted by: Dalton | 01 March 2011 at 15:57
This is about OIL! All of us who drive daily, or heat our homes or take planes are financing the Qaddafi's life style. A million dollars means absolutely nothing to the oil rich and very little to the entertainers who go and perform for them. It is a token gesture at best.
Dalton, please try to control your hardon for me. I'm embarrassed for you.
Posted by: FREELEO | 01 March 2011 at 18:25
@FREE
While a million dollars means nothing to the Qaddafi's, and maybe not even to Nelly Furtado, it damn sure means a lot to ANY charity she gives it to.
You seem very informed about world politics and events, so it's easy for you to sit back and say "they should have known about the Quaddafi history," but honestly, what percent of Americans do you think have a clue who the Quaddafi's are? Probably below 10%. Then when you add to that an insane publicity, advertisement, workout, and performing schedule, do you really think these stars are watching CNN? BBC? MSNBC? NY Times?
I doubt 5% of entertainers do personal research on their bookings, that's what the agents and managers and handlers are for. They hire these people to protect them from embarrassing situations like these and when they fail, the artist can only do what they can to make up for it.
Bravo Nelly Furtado.
Posted by: Procrastination_Xtravaganza | 02 March 2011 at 08:56
Perhaps the USA should return the hundreds of millions of barrels of oil that we have purchased from Libya over the last 30 years while we conveniently turned a blind eye to the dictatorship in that country. This is not a brand new issue. I've been reading and hearing about Qaddafi all my life.
Posted by: STRONGFORU | 02 March 2011 at 16:04
If entertainers were smart, they would seek out dictators, torturers, arms manufacturers, investment bankers, and polluters to perform for, and then quietly donate their fees to whatever organizations are trying to fight these people. That way, the criminals would be unwittingly funding their own demise.
Posted by: Jim | 02 March 2011 at 22:40
Did he just become a dictator over night?
Posted by: thegayte-keeper | 06 March 2011 at 21:45