Here we go again, another singer receiving big bucks to perform in a less-than-okay country. Mariah Carey adds one mark to a long list (Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce, Usher, Kanye West, Nelly Furtado, 50 Cent, Sting,…) as she was paid $1 million to perform for Angolan President (and dictator) Jose Eduardo Dos Santos last Sunday ! Yeah it’s an euphemism to call him a president as the state has no longer a presidential system, he has been ‘president’ for 34 years, controls all the other organs of the state and Angola is considered as one of the authoritarian regimes in Africa.
Naturally, the guy and his family are super rich when the majority of Angolans lives on less than $2 a day. The irony in the story is that the gala Mariah Carey was performing at had a humanitarian disguise since it was a fundraising for the Angolan Red Cross and her appearance helped raise $65,000; the problem is that the Angolan Red Cross is run by Dos Santos’ daughter. Carey also played a stadium gig which was sponsored by Unitel, a cell phone company also co-owned by Dos Santos’ daughter and she wasn’t shy of posing with the whole family for pictures. ‘It is the sad spectacle of an international artist purchased by a ruthless police state to entertain and whitewash the father-daughter kleptocracy that has amassed billions in ill-gotten wealth’, declared Thor Halvorseen president of New York’s Human Rights Foundation. Mariah even said during the show, ‘I am happy to be here in this room, and I am honored to share this show with the president of Angola’.
Can’t she ever learn? Five years ago, she performed for Gaddafi’s family and then apologized!! Is she this dumb, does she forget very fast, or does she think we are dumb? I can’t tell but at the time she pulled a Jennifer-Lopez-type of excuse: ‘I was naive and unaware of whom I was booked to perform for. Going forward, this is a lesson for all artists to learn from. 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.’
She sounds like a complete moron! If you are an artist and accept this type of deal, at least assume it, but don’t say you forgot to google Angola! And a lesson for all artists to learn from? A lesson she can’t even learn herself? Or may be a lesson she doesn’t want to learn… All I want for Christmas is money, that’s for sure!