Well....that's disappointing. Afaik, Lady Gaga is bi right? Even if not she's been a strong ally to the community for years. But Qatar has an abhorrent and draconian stance on LGBTQ+ rights. Even the attempted media play in the years since they were awarded the cup hosting rights, saying they want an 'all fans welcome' policy is pathetic when it's followed up with the caveat that as long as it's 'private' and in a country where active homosexuality is still met with criminal charges.
It's a massive disappointment to me to see queer representative celebrities...I don't know, fucking selling out and doing a world cup song for a country that would throw em in jail if they were regular citizens.
I hope in the ceremony they go off script and make a statement about Qatar's disgusting human rights breaches and show the spine Uefa couldn't this Summer in Germany.
While I totally understand your point -- having lived in a dictatorship and my family too, they may have offered them to be in the lineup on purpose. You underestimate the work of Good PR and especially with touring meaning many artists lost a lot of money, a large check/fame/articles are enough to make any artist agree. It a) minimizes the issue for the dictatorship (which is harmful I agree with you on that) b) if they went off script would become a huge blunder for international press c) would have huge repercussions. Also many artists do not have a choice -- if the label says we need to (to make money), they have to. These kinds of events are very helpful to a career.
