Mariah Carey celebrates Christmas with another dictator

http://www.theguardian.com/music/shortcuts/2013/dec/22/mariah-carey-celebrates-christmas-dictator

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Raise a glass of mull to Mariah! Twenty years since she donned a sexy Santa outfit and pranced around in the snow, sales of All I Want For Christmas Is You have finally reached 1 million in the UK. Merry Christmas. Though it seems Mariah's biggest presents aren't delivered by Dasher, Dancer and Prancer but Mutassim, Muammar and Dos Santos.

As Mariah was receiving the good news about her sales record, she was heading off to Angola to play a concert for President José Eduardo dos Santos. In a country where 70% of the population live on less than $2 a day, Carey is rumoured to have been paid $1m for her appearance. During the show, which featured three outfit changes – including the slightly worse-for-wear Santa costume - Mariah said she was "honoured to share this show with the president of Angola".

Dos Santos has been in power for almost 30 years, presiding over a bloody and long civil war in which he emerged the victor. His presidency has seen rises in both the wealth of Angola and enormous inequality: his daughter, whose phone company sponsored the event, is the richest woman in Africa. He also has a particularly nasty way of dealing with dissent. A leaked internal report recently revealed that two missing veterans – who had been protesting against the Dos Santos government because they hadn't received their pensions – were kidnapped, tortured and, in one case, thrown into a crocodile-infested river.

This isn't the first time Carey has played for a despot. In 2008, she performed at the New Year's Eve party of Mutassim Gaddafi, one of the sons of former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Eventually apologising for the gig three years later, she said she was emarrassed and that profits from a forthcoming song, Save The Day, would be given to a human rights organisation. The song is yet to emerge.

This story is becoming well-worn. Beyoncé also performed for the Gaddafi family, although she has since donated her fee to charity. Kim Kardashian was reportedly paid $500,000 to say less than 10 words at an event in Lagos earlier this year, and Jennifer Lopez was moved to apologise after performing "Happy Birthday" for Turkmenistan's President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, a noted human-rights violator.

To many people, Mariah Carey is Christmas. But pop stars who placate the whims of corrupt governments in countries where the majority of the population lives in poverty are always going to end up on Santa's naughty list.

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