Jennifer Lopez sang “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” on Saturday to a leader who has been characterized as one of the most repressive in the world. “We wish you the very, very, happiest birthday,” Lopez said to Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, and then she sang to him at a huge celebration at a resort in the central Asian country. The singer’s spokesman told CNN Sunday that “had there been knowledge of human right issues of any kind, Jennifer would not have attended.” Human Rights Watch, in a report to the U.N. Human Rights Committee, recently called Turkmenistan “a country marked by extraordinary levels of repression.” “Widely recognized as one of the most repressive in the world, the Turkmen government exercises total control of public life,” the report said. Lopez spokesman Mark Young said she “and several other artists were invited and performed at a private corporate event for the China National Petroleum Corporation that was presented to their local executives in Turkmenistan.” The event was not sponsored by the government and not political, he said. “The China National Petroleum Corporation made a last-minute ‘birthday greeting’ request prior to Jennifer taking the stage,” he said. “This was not stipulated in her contract, but she graciously obliged the China National Petroleum Corporation request.”
