The Darey Concert: Paying Millions For The
Presence Of A Porn Star - By Wale Odunsi
Okay, I hardly comment on entertainment and
showbiz news. I prefer to stay on the national issues/political terrain which
are my jurisdiction. However, I could not hold back the temptation to do a
piece on Darey’s ‘Love Like A Movie’ concert.
No doubt, the LLAM held in Lagos was
superb; star-studded, proper management, lights, sounds et al. In fact not a
few have adjudged the show the best of its type in recent years. The ovation
and positive review was not unexpected considering the artiste involved. Dude
is good-looking, knows his onions, greatly talented and business oriented.
Click to read more after the
cut...
About a week to the D-day,
news went viral that renowned Reality TV girl, Kim Kardashian, will be in the
country as a co-host of the event. At 8:20pm of Saturday, February 16, 2013,
she flew in.
Trust Nigerian blogs, before
her arrival, no other news existed. Even major news tabloids caught the bug. At
least for three straight days, it was Kim this, Kim that.
I have no beef about that. I
am certain the organizers splashed plenty six or seven figures that sorta hype.
And for the publicists, heavens once again beamed a wide grin at them; they
must have smiled to the banks, perhaps their closets, depending on where they
keep their monies.
After every every, Kanye
West's heartrob and baby-mama to be, left the shores of Naija just when the
concert was about to start. Initially I thought she developed flu and had to
quickly jet out. Soon after, I learnt she was actually invited to do what I
like to tag ‘Cameo’ (a short appearance by a popular figure in a music video).
At the Eko Hotels venue, the
Kim simply posed for pictures with some of our local and a few international
champions who clearly were star-struck; you could see it in their eyes and on
their foreheads. I even spotted the wife of former Cross River governor, Onari
Duke with her.
LLAM number one guest was
kind enough to open the show, spending a total forty seconds on stage. That was
it…Chikena! In all, she was there for three-quarter of sixty minutes. By
10:20pm Sunday night, she was aboard a plane back home.
The major (if not only) flaw
of that outing was the presence of Kim. If it is true that she was paid
hundreds of thousands of Benjamins (aka US Dollars), it would indeed be
appalling. We are talking about someone
who shot her way to the limelight via the now infamous sex-tape which anyone
can still download on the internet for free! So for the sake of money, we’ve
sent our morals, decency and integrity on vacation.
Just few weeks ago, Miss
Kardashian-West was paid $200,000 for a trip to Ivory Coast. She then proceeded
to donate a meager $2,000 to a local orphanage, an amount less than one percent
of her total financial terms (including flight, hotel and security charge).
Obviously Darey and his team
wanted a name that would pull the crowd out of their homes. Question: Was that
the best they could come up with? Whatever happened to female celebs known for
their and hard work and larger than life persona: Alicia Keys, India Arie, Adele among many
others.
As a humanitarian, it is
sheer stupidity to think that a clique forming big boys would dole out all that
money for below-an-hour attendance of an actress whose only movie to her credit
is a pornographic motion picture. It would have made more sense if she stayed
throughout the event, to at least justify the huge amount spend on her
appearance.
Charles Novia rightly noted
and I wish to re-echo his statement: There was absolutely no need for Kim
Kardashian at Darey’s concert.
wodunsi@yahoo.com
@WaleOdunsi
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