Beyonce got $1 million to perform for a Qaddafi, donated it to charity

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Last year, just after New Year’s, there was a big controversy about Beyonce and other musical celebrities being paid buckets of money to perform in St. Barts at a party thrown by Hannibal Qaddafi, the son of Muammar Qaddafi. Bey was allegedly paid $1 million to perform (at least), and she got the brunt of the criticism in the media – I think because she was the “headliner” of the event. Anyway, in the wake of the ongoing Libyan crisis, celeb-watchers have revisited the controversy and Beyonce has finally answered: she gave the million dollars to The Clinton Foundation.

Beyonce’s hands are clean. After a recent RollingStone.com article urged the 29-year-old “Halo” singer to return the money she was paid to perform for family members of Libyan dictator Muammar Qaddafi in 2009, Beyonce’s rep tells UsMagazine.com that the matter has been resolved.

“All monies paid to Beyonce 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,” her publicist tells Us.

“Once it became known that the third party promoter was linked to the Qaddafi family, the decision was made to put that payment to a good cause.”

Fellow singer Mariah Carey, 40, received $1 million for a lavish New Year’s Eve bash in St. Barts, where she performed for Qaddafi’s son, Muatassim, Libya’s national security adviser. Usher, 32, also earned an undisclosed amount for performing on the same Caribbean island.

[From Us Weekly]

So… Beyonce did not spend a terrorist’s money on weaves and diamond booty cream, fyi. But here’s the part that bothers me: “Once it became known that the third party promoter was linked to the Qaddafi family…” Um, NO. It was pretty obvious that it wasn’t an occasion where there was merely some tenuous connection to the Qaddafi family. This was a party HOSTED by the Qaddafi family. At the time, Beyonce was criticized in particular for her connection to Hannibal (who may also be known as Muatassim, I‘m not really sure about that reference) not because of terrorism, but because he has a history with violence against women, especially his own wife.

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Photos courtesy of WENN.

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47 Responses to “Beyonce got $1 million to perform for a Qaddafi, donated it to charity”

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  1. Arianna says:

    what.the.fuck.is she wearing in that second pic….

    good to hear she donated the money… but i feel bad saying i distrust her motives.
    something’s a lil funky here.

    but i still admire her actions either way

  2. mln76 says:

    Yeah it’s all about a paycheck to her. Sadly there is a history of this kind of greed going all the way back to when the top pop performers of the 80’s including Rod Stewart and Tina Turner played at the Resort Sun City in South Africa during Apartheid. Entitlement and greed seems to be less controversial than helping people I guess.

  3. brin says:

    @min76…I agree with you.

  4. guesty says:

    I don’t understand why she would do that. It certainly wouldn’t be for the money.

  5. Celebitchy says:

    @mln Remember that awesome song about not playing at Sun City? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjWENNe29qc

  6. mln76 says:

    @CB I am half South African so yeah I totally remember it. There are some good-hearted stars out there too 🙂

  7. nnn says:

    If you accept money from a dictator, public money he stole from his citizen, at least act at re-distributing that money, fuelling the funds where it belongs and should have never been plundered to begin with : back to the citizen of the country.

    If i was Beyonce, in order to turn that despicable act, taking money from a man who has blood in his hands, mainly those of his own people, I would have look at social projects within the country, the way to finance them before accepting to perform. Then, i would have asked the biggest paycheck, invest it totally and adding some of my own in a school, a hospital, social homes in the slumest area of the country.

  8. tango says:

    I know. Qaddafi has been known for decades for killing his own people and violence against women. To even play for his family was wrong. But girl had bills to pay and probably hoped it wouldn’t be that big of a deal.

  9. Happymom says:

    And she’s not the only one-Nelly Furtado, Mariah Carey and Lionel Ritchie have also performed for the Gaddafis. I think this is so disgusting. Don’t these people have any scruples at all?? I understand playing corporate gigs or bar mitzvahs-but performing for terrorists???

  10. crisyroo says:

    I think you mean Gaddafy not Qaddafi.

  11. garvels says:

    I remember when she performed for this despot and I was quite shocked that she and her celebrity millionaire cronies would associate with such dictators. I was amazed that no one in the Hollywood community was outraged. I thought these bozos were suppose to be for the common person but they are only for themselves and the money and riches that come their way. I laughed when she donated the money to another politician-Clinton! She should have given it back directly to the people of Libya in the form of food or medical aid.

  12. Jesus Christ Superstar says:

    She may not have taken the money but I’m sure she took the tax break.

  13. mln76 says:

    @garvels Mariah Carey and Usher also performed at the same event and haven’t commented on what they have done with this money. Like I said in an earlier comment this is very common. Alot of pop musicians will get a huge fee to perform at a private party for an obscure prince, dictator, sheik with no questions asked about how their people are treated and it’s been going on for decades.

  14. tapioca says:

    Well she is married to a man who made his millions selling misogyny to middle-class white kids, so I’m not hugely surprised that she took the gig without caring where the money came from.

  15. lucy2 says:

    Hopefully this public exposure will make other celebs say no to such requests in the future. Beyonce is ridiculously wealthy, she didn’t need that million to start with.
    Usher and Mariah better hurry up with a statement too!

  16. garvels says:

    Min76-I agree with you that this has been going on for decades by other stars. I have always known about this practice and I have always been quite irritated that entertaining for oppressive dictators and leaders went unchecked by the star’s Hollywood peers and media outlets.

  17. sassenach says:

    I remember when she performed at that party and there were SO MANY CELEBS there. If they call out Bey and Mariah, they need to call out everyone who was there. I even saw pics of Jon Bov Jovi talking to Qaddafi.

  18. whitedaisy says:

    It was wrong of her to perform for the family; it was wrong of all of the others to perform for this family.
    Just wrong.

  19. curmudgeon says:

    @cb
    thanks for posting the sun city video. I remember that well. Its pretty awsome.

  20. Jeane says:

    Look, these stars don’t book their own performances. They have an agent and a management team and handlers, assistents and whatnot who negotiate bookings and manage their schedule. The artist is then told what flight to take, where to be at what time and how many songs to sing.

    I’m not a fan of any of these people, but I think it is possible they were not really aware of who exactly there were performing for, and if they were I doubt that any of them knew who Khadaffi really was. I’m sure many people were not aware of the situation in Libya until all hell broke loose a few weeks ago. Especially Famous Popstars whose heads are so much up their own asses most of the time that they hardly notice the world around them.

    I mean, come on, this was OVER A YEAR AGO, and no one called these people out until just now. Now that it’s a hot topic everyone is crying OMG SCANDAL!!! Back then, nobody cared. Beyonce etc. didn’t and, apparently Celebitchy didn’t care either or you would have reported on it back then. No disrescpect intended, but I thinks it’s kind of easy to suddenly jump on the anti-Khadaffi bandwagon when his awful regime has been supported by the west for decades.

    And @ crisyroo, there are multiple spellings possible. It’s an arabic name so the spelling is phonetic.

  21. Jeane says:

    Oh and I’m not sure if I can post a link, but this quiz about who said what between Charlie Sheen and Khadaffi is hilarious:

    http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/quiz/2011/mar/01/muammar-gaddafi-charlie-sheen-quiz

  22. mln76 says:

    @Jeane I am curious how old you are? And also I am curious if you live in the US? Because when I was a kid in the 80’s Khadaffi was the original Saddam Hussein/ Osama Bin Laden boogie man and there were several incidents dating back to Reagan in the early 80’s and later the Lockerbie Bombing. This story did get press last year (even if not on CB) because I remember reading about it. And the whole manager excuse is poppy cock. These people hire and pay their management but that doesn’t mean they don’t have the brains to say Who the F—k am I playing for. They choose to say yes and no and hope that they don’t get any press about it.

  23. flotus says:

    I doubt VERY seriously that she donated the money! She is only out for Beyonce.

  24. flotus says:

    Narcissistic people think of no one but themselves. Something is telling me, Beyonce did not donate the monies….

  25. DGO says:

    Yeah, she and her husband disgust me. I wonder if she was thinking of the Lockerbie victims’ families as she was jerking around on stage.

  26. jover says:

    Agree with all above. Jeane your excuse doesn’t wash – these bozos like to think they are more worldly, wise and cosmpolitan than the great unwashed that make them rich. They are not. Bouncy is a classic example of greed, ignorance, indifference and narcissism – only out for herself. What I don’t understand, someone please explain,is why the media is up her butt – why won’t someone call her out directly since she thinks she’s better than us. I don’t think she’s intelligent enough to grasp the moral grotesqueness of this.

  27. Quest says:

    I say antimoney laundering and terrorist financing could classify this dilemma accepting money that is dirty for what ever reason is still irresponsible no matter who did it in the past…acceptance of any proceeds from a criminal act is just as bad

  28. Jeane says:

    @ mln76

    I live in Europe and am 26 years old 🙂
    Yes I knew about Khadaffi way before all this, but my knowledge was pretty limited to “evil crazy dictator guy.”
    The Lockerbie bombing happened when I was very young so had never really heard about it and the whole Khadaffi/Libya thing was pretty abstract to me until now.

    Now I am someone who regularly reads the paper and watches the news and I am interested and curious about the world around me. Many people aren’t though and I suspect that most celebrities are among those people.

    “These people hire and pay their management but that doesn’t mean they don’t have the brains to say Who the F—k am I playing for.”
    I think most celebrities live in their own little glamour worlds and do not have the brains to wonder about anything as long as their people say it’s ok and they’re getting paid. Not an excuse though, I agree with you on that! Just saying that it’s completely possible that people like Beyonce, Mariah Carey and Usher (I mean, I love Mariah and all, but can you picture her reading a newspaper and having opinions about politics?) were completely unaware about the situation. And the fact that there wasn’t this much outrage over these performances back in 2009 makes me think that most people were not aware or did not really care back then either!

  29. Gistine says:

    Yeah, right. I’m totally on board with those of you who doubt it.

    She’s disgusting.

  30. Bodhi says:

    I think there was a story about this on NPR recently. (I think it was NPR, since thats all I listen to in the car).

    I’m not in the least surprised that these stars performed for various & sundry dictators. Mariah Carey gets paid gazillions of dollars to be flown all over the world & perform for tons of rich ass people. Its extremely common.

    I don’t doubt for a second that she donated the money. Why on Earth would she say that she did & then not do it? Donations can be tracked, people…

  31. mln76 says:

    @Jeanne I am 34 so I probably have a bit clearer memory of the problems with Libya throughout the 80’s. I live in NY I think there was some attention here when this happened in The New York Post who (despite it’s iffy journalism) has called out various people including Donald Trump for any associations with Khaddafi. But remember this was in early January of 2010 and the story was overshadowed by the Haitian earthquake.

  32. Westcoaster says:

    So did Beyonce fire whoever booked her to perform at this concert?

  33. Cheyenne says:

    crisyroo: I think you mean Gaddafy not Qaddafi.
    ============================================

    I’ve seen Gaddafy, Gaddafi, Qaddafi, Khaddafi, Khadafi, Qadhafi and Gadhafi. Can we all get together on how to spell this sack of shit’s name?

  34. Cheyenne says:

    @Jeanne and mln: I have a special interest in Libya and the Lockerbie bombing. A very good friend of my son was studying in Europe for her junior year abroad and was on that plane flying home to spend Christmas with her family.

  35. mln76 says:

    Can we all get together on how to spell this sack of shit’s name?

    @Cheyenne you are killing me with your comments today too funny 🙂

    EDIT: I am so sorry about your loss. Again think it’s ridiculous what these celebs will do for greed.

  36. DGO says:

    @ Cheyenne – There is no one right way to spell it. Many Arab names have various spellings, which is why it can be tricky to get it right on the no-fly list.

  37. Cheyenne says:

    @mln: Thank you. My son was devastated at her death. She was a lovely, brilliant young woman with a very bright future ahead of her.

  38. the original bellaluna says:

    @ CB – Yes! “I; I; I; I; I ain’t gonna play Sun Citay-ay-ay.” I remember it well. 🙂

  39. Shay says:

    She is pathetic. Does she really need the money?
    More proof of the ignorance and stupidity of these ‘singers’.
    It doesn’t matter if she donated the money to charity, she still got up off her fat arse to perform for these bastards (who steal money from their people to buy mansions all over the world).
    Then again, one only has to listen to Beyonce speak to know that she is dim. Sounds like she hasn’t even finished school, so it’s not surprising.
    This is a woman who will book out an extra hotel room, like she did in London once time,for all her Louis Vuitton luggage.

  40. kas says:

    Cheyenne: The Asshat spells his own name about 5-7 different ways. Go with what feels right to ya.

    You have to love that NOW they are all rushing to give back his money. Everything he’s doing now he’s been doing for years.

  41. Tara says:

    This bleachy heffa is so fake and greedy its sickening!! Now she has her sister/daughter solange aka basement baby spewing defenses for her on the twitter!! Their whole fam is gross ignorant and evil! And bleachy aka beyonce is a stinky liar! Why if the donation was the case why wait weeks to say something and why was this donantion not mentioned at the time?? Ms bleachy is not the modest quiet type ol hamburger helper minus the meat selling ass!! Get this overly pale bleachy dumb dumb outta hur!!

  42. ThatBoyLuke says:

    Beyonce got the brunt of criticism because it’s proved time and again that nomatter how much money she earns or has in the bank she will lie, cheat and screw people over just to get a bit more pocket change and all the while act like some innocent child stumbling into one shady deal after annother.

  43. eternalcanadian says:

    It is so lame these celebrities (Nelly Furtado is another singer that backtracked) that knew exactly what they were doing when they accepted pay to sing gigs from people like Gaddafi then when the crap hits the fan like now they are all, omg I donated the money to charity. Hypocrites, the lot of them.

  44. DeE says:

    Am i correct in understanding that she only donated it after the uprising and present outrage? If so……well

  45. Geekylove says:

    I have a major problem with beyonce after this. When queen did the same in south africa(actually, they were put on the blacklist and throughly judged for it. I was in tunisia when the (r)evolution broke out; those are young people, college educated who can’t find job. The dictature in which they lived is staggering.
    The fact that UN and whole world(yeah, looking at you Obama) isn’t doing anything is ridicolous. I will be ashamed of the stare of the world if a well written statement get bey out of this. Like she didn’t have million $ to begin with. Si she’s so cheap that she has to sing for the kids Of monster to donate?? DISGUSTING

  46. vegemite says:

    On a side note-Actor David White,the one who played Darrin’s boss in ‘Bewitched’ lost his son on that Pan am plane.The old man died heartbroken a couple of yrs after.

  47. JenJen says:

    I love how these celebrities are donating the money to charity, now that they are busted for taking it to begin with. Mariah lost alot of my respect, too. Beyonce hasn’t had it since Destiny’s Child.