Beyonce Knowles wants you to know that she never profited off the backs of oppressed Libyans.
Days after singer Nelly Furtado announced on Twitter that she was donating money she had received from Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi for a private concert in 2007, Knowles revealed that she had done the same earlier this year.
Knowles received one million dollars for playing a private New Years party for Gaddafi’s son Mutassim at the Caribbean island of St. Bart’s in 2009. According to her rep, Beyonce donated the money to Haitian earthquake relief in January 2010.
“Once it became known that the third party [concert] promoter was linked to the Gaddafi family, the decision was made to put that payment to a good cause,” spokesperson Yvette Noel-Schure told the Huffington Post.
Knowles was among a number of popular singers revealed this week to have performed for friends and family of the Libyan regime. The news came alongside efforts to freeze Gaddafi’s international assets, as an uprising against his 40-year rule threatened to devolve into civil war. (via MTV)
