American Reality TV star Kim
Kardashian did her bank account no harm when she appeared at a
Valentine’s Day concert in Lagos for a few minutes and walked away with
some N82m. But her already questionable reputation has suffered some
more.
Kim
Kardashian was scheduled to headline Darey Art Alade’s Valentine’s gig
with the catchy title ‘Love . . .Like a Movie’. What happened was
certainly like a movie, the grand performances of the night, and Kim’s
varnishing act. She came and left so fast if you had blinked, you would
have missed her.
But the talking point was the money she
was paid to make an appearance. $500, 000 (Half a million dollars),
which translates as N 82. 5 m. That much. And Kim just walked in and
walked out 45 minutes later and was back on the plane to the States. The
cyber space has been agog with condemnation of her action and some have
gone as far as calling the reality TV star a fraudster.
What was
Kim Kardashian invited to do, anyway, since she has no obvious talent?
She does not sing or dance and the acting she does on TV is said to be
reality. Darey Art Alade brought her in to co-host the event with him.
Her name did sell tickets, even if some of these tickets went for N100,
000. And those who paid this much had the distinction of being at a
pre-event dinner where Kim K made a brief appearance as well.
The
concert at Eko Hotel, one of Lagos’ premiere event centre, had Kim make a
brief appearance and then left, confounding the audience. One of them
was Charles Novia, ace Nollywood producer. “She came in at the beginning
of the show and spent just forty-five seconds or so on stage! That was
all we saw of her. She introduced herself and asked the audience to
prepare for a night they wouldn’t forget and left. Shikena!
She
was even glum, as if it was a task to just be there at all!” he wrote in
an article. “If you ask me, there was no need for Kim Kardashian at all
in this concert. None whatsoever! Was she paid huge sums and flown here
to just introduce Darey? It didn’t make sense to many. My two cents on
that would be that Darey’s management knew they had a great show planned
but needed the ‘ooomph’ factor to pull in more crowds. And Kim
Kardashian was that factor, perhaps. Anyway, the show would go down in
the history of concerts in Nigeria as the best. I mean it!” he added.
The
organiser, Darey Art Alade has been basking in the eulogies pouring in
on Twitter over the success of the show, while carefully avoiding
comments on Kim’s brief appearance which has agitated many people who
feel the money paid to bring Kim to Nigeria was a total waste. Blogger
and Publisher Jeremy Weate, in a blog post was not as kind when he
described her action as 419, saying she had scammed the scammers.
Le
Mitraillou twitting as @OlaHolloway said, “Kim Kardashian’s stay in
Lagos reminds me of her marriage.” This is a snide reference to Kim’s
fairy tale wedding to Kris Humphries, which enjoyed wide television
coverage but lasted all of 72 days. The divorce is still ongoing while
Kim has moved on and gotten pregnant for rapper Kanye West. Humphries
has said he had been set up for the fall from the beginning just so
Kim’s reality show can enjoy a boost.
Many guests at the wedding
accused Kim of staging the event in order to make money from endorsement
deals and the expensive gifts she was going to get, an allegation the
reality TV star has denied. Whatever disappointments her brief
appearance engendered, the likes of TuFace, 9ice, Iyanya, Timi Dakolo,
Praiz, Waje and others who combined with Circque du Soleil an extreme
theatre, made the night memorable for the audience in what has been
described as one of the best organised concerts in the country.
