So how much do you think Paul McCartney, Arctic Monkeys or any performer (such as Mike Oldfield, Dizzee Rascal and Emeli Sande ) got paid to sing at the Olympic Opening Ceremony? $1 million? More? Not even close… NME, which got it from the London Evening Standard, is reporting that they were paid just £1!
So how did this happen? They all agreed to play for free but had to be paid the symbolic sum of £1($1.57) for contract reason. And McCartney doesn’t seem to regret anything since he declared: ‘It was terrific, great, really cool. It was a trip and very exciting. It was a great opening ceremony.’
Only top artists received this unusual treatment, whereas dancers and actors participating to Danny Boyle’s extravaganza, were paid the professional rate. For comparison, seats ranged up to £2,012 for the best available, and the show cost $125 million.
Honestly, I didn’t really find the ceremony a success, I got bored very fast, and despite McCartney’s enthusiasm, I didn’t think he was in good vocal shape, his performance was okay but far from being great,… may be it was a bad day, but may be it doesn’t matter, he was not there to be good, he was there to represent English pop culture!
Anyway, despite the free concert, none of the big stars is a looser in the story: The Artic Monkeys’ cover of the Beatles’ ‘Come Together’ is now number 14 in the iTunes download chart, the performers have seen some unavoidable repercussions of the same nature, and the compilation of all the music featured in the Opening Ceremony is now number 5 in the US and number 1 in many European countries! No words about a possible boost in the sales of the classic Beatles’ ‘Hey Jude’.