Beyonce Criticised for Playing Gaddafi Gig

Former Destiny's Child diva Beyonce Knowles has found herself at the centre of a major furore after accepting a reported £1.25m ($2m) pay cheque for headlining a private New Year's Eve concert for the 33-year-old son of notorious Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Gaddafi.

The singer performed five songs for Gaddafi's son Moutassim Gaddafi -- also known as Hannibal -- at a concert that also included guests actress Lindsay Lohan, Usher, Jon Bon Bovi and model Victoria Silvstedt. Also in the audience was Beyoncé's husband, Jay-Z. Guests allegedly paid £7,500 per table at the Nikki Beach nightclub on the Caribbean island of St Bart's.

The concert has proved controversial thanks in part to Gaddafi junior's history of alleged violence to women. Police were called to his suite in Claridge's Hotel in London on Christmas Day after staff reported screams from his room and his 29-year-old wife, Aline Skaf, was later admitted to hospital with a broken nose. In 2005, he was arrested in a Parisian hotel after punching a woman.

This stands sharply at odds with Beyonce's position as an "independent woman" and advocator of women's position of equality. The singer's decision to perform for a man with such a reputation has drawn stern criticism in the United States.

Speaking to CNN, Marc Lamont Hill, a media professor at Columbia University, blasted the singer saying, "Beyonce's handlers usually make really good decisions about where she's going to perform ... So it seems to me that someone was asleep at the wheel, or the money was so overwhelming that they said, 'Screw the public image, we're going to take the cash.'"