Jennifer Lopez has received quite a bit of bashlash over the past few days after performing “Happy Birthday” at a private concert for the President of Turkmenistan, one of the world’s leading nations for human rights abuse.
According to RadarOnline.com, Lopez is expected to have pocketed at least $1.5 million for her performance, not including the costs of a private jet and a hotel room for herself and her entourage.
“She would have pocketed at minimum $1.5 million for this gig. Once expenses are included, this gig could have run closer to $2 million,” an insider told RadarOnline.
Lopez denies that she knew about the former Soviet country’s human rights abuses and would’ve never performed the show if she had known in advance. In a statement to E! News, a representative of Lopez says her performance was part of a concert sponsored by “China National Petroleum Corporation that was presented to their local executives in Turkmenistan. [And] was not a government sponsored event or political in nature.”
“The event was vetted by her representatives, had there been knowledge of human rights issues of any kind, Jennifer would not have attended,” the statement added.
“Lopez obviously has the right to earn a living performing for the dictator of her choice and his circle of cronies,” Human Rights Watch president Thor Halvorssen said in a statement. “But her actions utterly destroy the carefully crafted message she has cultivated with her prior involvement with Amnesty International’s programs in Mexico aimed at curbing violence against women.”
Jennifer Lopez is believed to be the first major Western star to visit Turkmenistan, which borders both Afghanistan and Iran.
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