A very happy new year! Mariah Carey is paid £1m to sing three hits for playboy son of Sultan of Brunei (a week after receiving £600,000 to perform for Angola dictator)
By Simon CableWith a fortune estimated at some £300million, Mariah Carey could probably have afforded to take New Year’s Eve off.
Then again, it seems there were a million more reasons not to.
The singer is rumoured to have been paid almost £1million to perform at a private celebration in London for the son of the Sultan of Brunei.
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Mariah Carey is thought to have been paid as over £900,000 to perform at the party hosted by Prince Azim
Miss Carey was said to have been handed $1.5million – around £910,000 – to sing several songs during the party at the five-star Dorchester Hotel.
She is understood to have performed around three hits, including Always Be My Baby, and lead a chorus of Auld Lang Syne, much to the delight of the crowd.
Miss Carey had been invited to appear by Prince Azim, the billionaire 31-year-old playboy son of the Sultan of Brunei. The pair have been friends for a number of years.
The star reportedly sang three hits and led a chorus of Auld Lang Syne
The singer, her husband and their two children, along with members of her entourage, were flown from the US by private jet, before the family was put up in the £5,000-a-night Harlequin Suite at the prestigious hotel, which is owned by the Brunei Investment Agency.
Miss Carey, 43, performed alongside veteran star Diana Ross at the New Year’s Eve event, where other guests included model Jerry Hall and actresses Sophia Loren and Faye Dunaway.
One member of the crowd, Ross Candy, wrote on Twitter: ‘What a night! Mariah Carey and Diana Ross singing us in to 2014. Thank you Prince Azim for such an incredible night!’
Prince Azim is known for his lavish star-studded parties, and his 30th birthday in 2012 was attended by the likes of Elizabeth Jagger, Raquel Welch and Pamela Anderson.
A representative for Miss Carey confirmed the singer had performed at the party, but would not confirm the fee.
They said: ‘It was a private party so we don’t discuss the fee. Mariah has known Prince Azim for many years.
They are friends and have done a lot of charity work together.’
Asked how many songs she performed, they added: ‘I don’t have any more details.’ Still, even at £1million, the appearance was relatively cheap by some stars’ standards.
Last week it emerged the singer was paid an estimated $1million to perform for Angolan President Josè Eduardo Dos Santos.
The show was sponsored by Unitel, a mobile-phone company owned by Dos Santos' daughter, Isabel.
Human rights campaigners were outraged by the news, claiming the leader had murdered and exploited the African country's people for his own gain.
The singer came under fire last week for performing in front of the Angolan president and his family for a reported £600,000 fee
The singer posted this photograph with her husband Nick Cannon and their two children on New Year's Eve
The singer famously apologised after performing for notorious dictator Colonel Muammar al-Gaddafi before he was killed during the Arab Spring uprising in 2011.
US band The Eagles was once reportedly paid £3.5million by an unknown benefactor to play one song, Hotel California, at a private party in New York, while American billionaire David Bonderman paid The Rolling Stones around £3.5million to perform for an hour at his 60th birthday party in 2002.
Since releasing her first album in 1990, Miss Carey has sold more than 100million records worldwide, making her one of the best-selling artists of all time.