In January 2023, Beyonce got paid eight figures to perform at a hotel opening in Dubai. Dubai, like many Emirate and Middle Eastern countries, is oil-rich and looking to diversify their business interests. Saudi Arabia has been getting into tennis and golf, and they’re now hosting a film festival. Dubai, Qatar and Abu Dhabi are focusing a lot of tourism and turning their emirate states into playgrounds, with high-end shopping, luxury resorts, sailing, etc. Those emirate states have also hosted tennis tournaments for years and no one on the tennis tour even blinks an eye at this point, especially not about LGBTQ rights (some on the women’s tour are gay and they come and go freely from those tournaments – a lesbian woman literally just made the final in the Abu Dhabi tournament).

Well, when Beyonce performed in Dubai last year, she got a significant amount of backlash from the LGBTQ community, because Dubai has anti-gay laws on their books. It was especially significant given the fact that her album Renaissance is very much Bey honoring queer culture and music. She never really addressed it and there was backlash to the backlash, especially because Beyonce’s gay fans in Dubai appreciated that she came. Well, I bring this up because now Jennifer Lopez is facing the exact same problem.

Jennifer Lopez is a gay icon for many, having picked up several gongs over the years for her LGBTQ rights activism. But the US superstar caused uproar last night when she pocketed a rumoured £5million to be the guest of honour at the launch of a five-star hotel in anti-gay Dubai.

Wearing an elaborate black gown, the singer hosted a bash at the One&Only One Za’abeel.

A spokeswoman for Jennifer, from her US PR company, told me earlier in the day that she would not be performing at the party yet hours later she took to the stage to sing Get Right. Dubai is part of the United Arab Emirates, which has strict laws against homosexuality.

Gay rights activist Peter Tatchell told me: “It’s very sad that a long-time LGBTQ ally like Jennifer Lopez is ­prepared to put money before human rights. Her performance will collude with the regime’s homophobia, misogyny and generalised abuse of human rights — that’s not the kind of thing Jennifer Lopez supports. She shouldn’t be going. The Dubai regime is using her to project a more liberal image. It’s a cynical exercise and it’s shameful that she is going along with it.”

Actors Vanessa Hudgens and Idris Elba also attended the glamorous soiree. Guests were given free Charlotte Tilbury make-up to get glammed up, and free-flowing bubbles and meals throughout the weekend.

[From The Sun]

Like the Beyonce situation, you could make arguments in either direction – it looks bad that J.Lo, always a supporter of LGBTQ rights, took money to open up a hotel in a country with draconian laws hurting the LGBTQ community. But on the other side, can’t you argue that every little bit helps and maybe it moves the needle? Maybe Dubai actually wants to soft-launch more tolerant policies and this is part of their cultural campaign? I don’t know. I doubt that was J.Lo’s mindset – she was offered $5 million, of course she’s going to Dubai. Something I think about too is… like, some American states have pretty hideous policies.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid.