Jennifer Lopez Performance Generates Controversy

A performance by Jennifer Lopez sparked a controversy when she sang Happy Birthday to the Turkmenistan leader during her show. However, her representative indicated that if the singer/actress knew the human rights issues hounding the country, she would not have performed at the show.

The China National Petroleum Corp hosted the event, which was held in the country that was formerly a part of the Soviet bloc. The Turkmenistan leader Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow attended the event. Human rights organizations consider his rule as oppressive, and the country is among most despotic in the world.

Ivan Simonovic, the Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights indicated that although some progress was made in terms of humans rights, there is still much room for improvement in order to complete the process.

The event was scrutinized by the staff of Jennifer Lopez, her publicist said. If they knew about any human rights concerns, the signer/actress would not have joined the event. She accommodated the request of the corporation to sing the birthday song.

Jennifer Lopez is the most recent celebrity who has to deal with scrutiny following her performance in a country that has human rights issues.

Two years ago, Hillary Swank apologized for attending a party to celebrate the birthday of Ramzan Kadyrov, the leader of the Chechen Republic. He is facing accusations of killings and torture. Swank said that she was not fully aware of the reason for the event.

A number of other celebrities also received huge payments for performing at parties that were connected to the late Moammar Gadhafi of Libya. All of these stars indicated that they were not aware of the connection of the leader with terrorism. They also indicated that the fees they received were donated to charity.

The publicist of Jennifer Lopez said that the singer/actress has no other scheduled performances in Turkmenistan.

Posted by Kade Quinn on Monday July 01 2013, 4:50 AM EST. Ref: USA Today. Link. All trademarks acknowledged. Filed under Entertainment, Featured News. Comments and Trackbacks closed. Follow responses: RSS 2.0