An update about Jennifer Lopez’s performance on Saturday in Turkmenistan: according to various reports, the singer was paid between $1 million and $1.5 million for a planned three-song private concert, one that ended up including at least six backup dancers, multiple costume changes, and a controversial rendition of “Happy Birthday” for Turkmenistan’s president, Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow. The controversy stems from accusations that Berdimuhamedow has "commit[ed] widespread human rights abuses while ruling over the hermit nation,” per The Guardian, and from reports that Lopez was hired for the show by the China National Petroleum Corp. Now, after Lopez's publicist explained in a statement that the song was a last-minute request, Lopez's manager Benny Medina has spoken out in her defense too, saying that she was peer-pressured into singing “Happy Birthday” as an add-on at the end of the show.
Per TMZ, which spoke to Medina:
Medina says it was HIS decision to bring Lopez back on stage at the end of the concert. Medina tells us ... the Prez got on stage and the M.C. started goading Lopez to sing “Happy Birthday”—singing it quietly in her ear, goading her on the spot to sing the Bday song.
First, who takes the stage to have “Happy Birthday” sung to him? Second, if that was indeed the case, it does not sound as though Lopez had a graceful way of denying this spontaneous encore and should maybe consider addressing such uncomfortable scenarios in all future private-concert contracts. Unlike Beyoncé, who reportedly donated to charity the money she earned from a controversial 2009 New Year’s Eve concert linked to the Qaddafi family, Lopez is reportedly not considering a similar recourse. Medina told TMZ that there is “no such discussion” about Lopez returning the fee. Meanwhile, a source tells E! that a charitable donation is “unlikely as her camp believes the controversy will all be forgotten pretty quickly.”
