Nicki Minaj, the one true queen of rap, on Saturday joined a depressingly long list of celebrities who when faced with criticism for performing in a country with human rights abuses responded with "¯\_(ツ)_/¯"
The country in question is the southwest African country of Angola. Its president, José Eduardo dos Santos, has been in power since three years before Minaj was born; the last presidential election in the country was 1992.
The concert, held in the 12,000-capacity Coqueiros Stadium, was sponsored by telecommunications company Unitel. In a weird coincidence, Unitel just happens to be controlled by Isabella dos Santos, the president's daughter, who Nicki took a picture with.
Before the concert, the Human Rights Foundation attempted to get Minaj to cancel the show, writing an open letter to her listing the numerous rights abuses that Angola has carried out, including a massacre of civilians this year.
But instead of canceling, she kind of maybe subtweeted at everyone who was telling her not to go? It's hard to tell.
Every tongue that rises up against me in judgement shall be condemned. 😘😊
While Minaj was performing, one of Angola's local talents had to miss the show. Rapper Luaty Beirao was one of 17 activists arrested back in June for reading a book about nonviolent resistance.
Mariah Carey was the last A-list singer to perform in a Unitel-sponsored Christmas show two years ago. Since she'd already performed for Libya's former strongman Moamar Qaddafi, people were super not thrilled and she dumped her manager.
But so far Minaj has been unrepentant and the backlash relatively low-key. So it's still unclear what — if anything — Minaj has taken away from the experience, aside from her performance fee.
CORRECTION
The last presidential election in Angola was in 1992. The last legislative election in Angola, which under the new constitution chooses the president indirectly, occurred in 2012. A previous version of this article indicated that the last election period was in 1992.