An explosive concert?

/ marketing / 2004 /
Ivan Shapovalov is probably the most unscrupulous man in show business anywhere on the planet...

Russians, still in shock at the Beslan tragedy, have reacted angrily to a music producer’s plans for what he calls a “terror concert”, with a female singer dressed as a suicide bomber on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The singer, called n.A.T.o. in a spin-off of the “lesbian schoolgirl” t.A.T.u. duo that took the West by storm, wears a long black dress, a veil, and sings in Arabic. Producer Ivan Shapovalov, who launched both groups, does not deny that the resemblance to a suicide bomber is intentional.

Tickets to Saturday’s show have also been made to look like plane tickets.

“Shapovalov is exploiting the topical theme of terrorism ... The tragedy in Beslan did little to stop his creative drive,” the Izvestia daily wrote.

...

In less important news from Russia, Putin has, yet again used terrorism as a vehicle to transform Russia from a mob-ruled kleptocracy to a centralized authoritarian state...