Nelly Furtado to donate $1M paycheck from Qaddafi to charity

Washington, March 1 – Canadian singer Nelly Furtado has announced on Twitter that she will donate 1 million dollars she earned performing for the family of Libya’s embattled leader, Muammar al-Qaddafi, to charity.

“In 2007, I received 1 million dollars from the Qaddafi clan to perform a 45 min. Show for guests at a hotel in Italy. I am going to donate the dollar,” Fox News quoted her as tweeting.

Furtado won a Grammy Award in 2000 for her breakthrough hit “I’m Like a Bird.”

Canada’s Globe and Mail reported that a representative from Furtado’s label, Universal Music, said more information would be forthcoming on her Twitter page.

Other performers, including Beyonce, Mariah Carey and Usher, have come under criticism for performing at private events for the Qaddafi family.

Meanwhile US Secretary of State Clinton told the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva that Qaddafi and his inner circle must be held accountable for violence that has so far left at least 1,000 Libyans dead since an uprising calling for an end to his four-decade rule began on Feb. 15. (ANI)

Singer Nelly Furtado donating $1 million from Gaddafi bash

Toronto, March 1 – Canadian pop star Nelly Furtado, who says she was paid $1 million to perform for Muammar Gaddafi and his family at a hotel in Italy in 2007, is donating the money to charity. 

According to the New York Times, the Gaddafi clan has been spending as lavishly on entertainers as they have on weapons in recent years.

Beyonce and Usher reportedly performed for Gaddafi’s son Muatassim at this year’s New Year eve party on the Caribbean island of St. Barts.

A year earlier, Seif al-Islam el-Gaddafi, another Gaddafi son, also paid Mariah Carey $1 million to sing just four songs at the New Year bash, the paper said last week.

Though most pop stars have kept quiet about taking huge sums of money from the embattled Libyan leader, Furtado Monday admitted on her Twitter that she pocketed $1 million for entertaining the Gaddafi family in 2007.

On her Twitter account, the Canadian singing star wrote that she gave a private show for the family of the Libyan leader four years ago.

‘In 2007, I was paid $1 million by the (Gaddafi) clan to play a 45-minute show for guests at a hotel in Italy,’ she said in her tweet message. ‘I am going to donate this (money).’

A representative of Universal Music, Furtado’s label, confirmed the tweet Monday, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC).

Furtado had a baby girl Nevis with her Indian-origin boyfriend DJ Jasper Gahunia in 2003. 

IANS