He may have been feared and loathed by some of his own citizens and leaders from the developed world, but there was a group of people who loved Col Muammar Gaddafi and his money.
Gaddafi, who was murdered on Thursday in his birth town of Sirte, lived large and when he wanted to be entertained, he did not turn on the radio or his TV, he got some of the biggest names in the world of music to do the job.
Beyonce, 50 Cent, Enrique Iglesias, Lionel Richie, Mariah Carey, Nelly Furtado, Timbaland and Usher are some of the prominent names who made millions of dollars from entertaining Gaddafi and his family.
Other celebrities like Jay-Z, Jon Bon Jovi, Bob Johnson and Russell Simmons are also said to have attended the private performances.
A memo released by the whistle-blowing site Wikileaks described lavish parties thrown by one of Gaddafi’s sons on the Caribbean island of Saint Bart’s where singers Beyonce and Usher were paid large sums to perform at the gathering.
As expected, these celebrities don’t come cheap and Gaddafi didn’t mind paying for their services.
Beyonce received $2m (Sh200 million current rate) to perform for the Gaddafi family in 2009 New Year’s bash reportedly for Gaddafi’s fourth son Muastassim, who was also killed with his father on Thursday.
She revealed in March that she was donating the money to to the Haitian earthquake relief fund.
“All monies paid to Beyoncé for her performance at a private party at Nikki Beach St Barts on New Year’s Eve 2009, including the commissions paid to her booking agency, were donated to the earthquake relief efforts for Haiti over a year ago,” the “Put a ring on it” singer’s publicist said in a statement to The Huffington Post.
Mariah Carey followed, saying she felt “horrible and embarrassed” for being paid $1 million (Sh100 million) to sing four songs at the New Year party in 2008.
Held accountable
“Going forward, this is a lesson for all artists to learn from,” said Carey. “We need to be more aware and take more responsibility regardless of who books our shows. Ultimately we as artists are to be held accountable.”
Singer Usher, who was paid not to perform but to do the midnight countdown at the same New Years party, said he was “sincerely troubled” by the origin of the money and would give his earnings “to various human rights organisations.”
Nelly Furtado, who performed for the Gaddafis for 45 minutes at an Italian hotel in 2007 received $1 million (Sh100 million), announced she would also donate the money to charity.
Rapper 50 Cent was also forced to donate the money he made after performing at a private gig for Mutassim Gaddafi, in Venice in 2005.
A statement from a representative for 50 Cent said: “In light of the ongoing events in Libya, 50 Cent will be making a donation to Unicef, which is providing vital relief supplies to meet the needs of women and children at risk during this crisis.”
Celebrities and dictators have a weird connection and have always been linked together. The dictators want to be entertained and the celebrities want their dollars.
Last week, Hollywood actors Hilary Swank, Jean-Claude van Damme and soul singer Seal were in trouble after they entertained Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov at his multimillion-dollar 35th birthday party in early October. Chechen is said to have an “atrocious human-rights record”.
Kadyrov is accused of being one of the world’s most notorious human rights violators, with an alleged history of arson, abductions and torture against people who aren’t hot celebrities.
“I deeply regret attending this event, which has thrown into question my long and deeply-held commitment to the protection of human rights,” Swank said in the statement.
Michael Jackson fled to Bahrain after he was acquitted of molesting young boys and was hosted by Bahrain’s Prince Abdullah al-Khalifa.
British supermodel Naomi Campbell is alleged to have received a huge “blood diamond” from ousted Liberian dictator Charles Taylor. She denied the allegations before the ICC.
Mobutu Sese Seko
One of Africa’s most brutal dictators, Mobutu Sese Seko hosted the famous “Rumble in the Jungle” fight and a concert as part of the “authenticity campaign” for the new country, Zaire.
The concert, dubbed Zaire 74, was held six weeks before the fight was attended by legends James Brown, Celia Cruz and the Fania All-Stars, B.B. King, Miriam Makeba, the Spinners, and Bill Withers.
It was originally intended to be the same weekend as the fight, but Foreman suffered an injury that pushed the concert back six weeks.
Mobutu paid $5 million (Sh500 million) each to Muhammad Ali and George Foreman to bring their famous boxing feud to Zaire’s capital.
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