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Stop Paris Hilton playing Summerfest 2015 petition takes off
Poor Paris Hilton, she can't seem to get anywhere with those boring purists. Well maybe not so 'poor': she is believed to be worth at least $US100 million.
An online petition was launched last week demanding organisers of the Summerfest music festival, starting in Milwaukee in late June, dump Paris Hilton from her DJ slot on the bill.
In five days the change.org petition has collected over 6300 signatures and will have no trouble reaching its initial target of 7500 names. But it has a long way to go to match the unprecedented 132,000 signatures on another petition calling for Kanye West to be thrown off the Glastonbury bill this year.
Summerfest is an 11-day event, billed as "the world's largest music festival", and is headlined by some of the world's hottest acts, from Kendrick Lamar to Ed Sheeran to Bastille and Linkin Park. Australians Keith Urban and Vance Joy are on the line-up – although Paris Hilton has equal billing with the red-hot Joy.
Thomas Neil, who started the petition, was witheringly dismissive of Hilton's alleged musical talents in a letter he penned to the festival's organisers: "She is a disgrace to dance music and is a perfect example of what spoiled celebrities do when they're bored.
"She has no right to be paid good money to stand up there and clap her hands on a stage. That money could be used to hire credible DJs that actually work hard on their craft ... This diminishes dance music as nothing more than a cheap show and if [Summerfest organisers] have any respect for the integrity of music [they] will remove Paris Hilton from the line-up."
To be fair, Hilton, now 34, has been one of the world's most scrutinised women for decades. She tried her hand at modelling, reality television, acting, being an entrepreneur, releasing perfumes and was most successful as a retailer. She has also doggedly tried to make it as a musician for nearly nine years and has managed to top the US dance charts three times.
In 2006 she released an album titled (wait for it), Paris, and has in recent times collaborated with several big names (including Snoop Dogg, Lil Wayne and Flo Rida) to produce a string of singles, the latest being the auto-tuned wannabe club anthem Come Alive. A promised (or threatened, depending on your perspective) second album is long overdue.
Hilton's DJing adventures took off with a set at the "Pop Music Festival" in Sao Paulo, Brazil in 2012 and since then she has secured lucrative DJing residencies in Ibiza, Dubai and Shanghai. Last year the abrasive Canadian DJ Deadmau5 – widely regarded one of the world's best electronic musicians – compared Hilton to a go-karter on a racetrack.
"Here's what you actually are to everyone who knows better," Deadmau5said, "Ticket sales. Nothing more."
Hilton accused Deadmau5of attacking her to get attention for his own career. Not long after a satirical website published a list of the worst 100 DJs in the world last October: Hilton came second – to Deadmau5.
National Music Editor