The Rolling Stones are in Israel. What are their backing singers paid?

The Rolling Stones are in Israel. What are their backing singers paid?

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norman lebrecht

June 03, 2014

The price for landing the Stones in Tel Aviv was $6.7 million.

The backing singers get $57 a head, according to local media. That’s for three rehearsals and a concert.

 

RollingStonesIsrael

Comments

  • Gaddiel says:

    Since it has been published two days ago,
    I have been filled with rage about this. And the fact that the management of this choir accepted such a price. It’s a never seen before.
    How Shuki Weiss the producer of the concert can permit himself to pay so little,
    when he himself gains about2-3 millions of shekels for sure from this concert.
    I am very angry at the Buchman Mehta choir, who accepted this without thinking a second that they are being used with such a price.
    Very irritating.

  • Johann Erinn says:

    I guess Mick is already over the death of his long-time girlfriend!

  • Kedem says:

    Well apparently the Stones use local amateur choirs whenever they perform for You Can’t Always Get What You Want (how ironic the title), but in Israel a professional choir had been approached for the ridiculous sum of roughly 57$ for three (!) rehearsals and a concert (apparently they go on stage for approx 1 minute, but hey, they have to spend the entire afternoon and evening backstage and time is money). Tickets for the concert cost as much as 500$ or more per head. Do your own arithmetic. If you use pro musicians, they have to be paid accordingly. That’s all. As it stands, the fee is ludicrous.

  • Anon says:

    If my understanding is correct, this is for a choir in one or two songs, which is a slightly different thing from “backing singers”.

    Was this a fee the choir were offered by the Stones, by a local fixer, or was this the fee the choir offered to perform for in the first instance? (Yes, some might choose to offer a low fee to get the gig in return for the additional prestige value after the event of “having performed with the Rolling Stones”)

    • Bob M says:

      Good point. It would appear much of the anger commentators are showing comes from transference rather than the truth.

  • jason says:

    As much as I would love to bash The Stones the simple fact is if the choir/singers had a problem with this all they had to do was say no.

    This is likely a big thrill for them, something them or many others like them would have done for free. The fee is likely just a little something to cover the expense of travel. I’m sure the singers also get into the show, get backstage, get to meet the band.

    Hell, in all honestly if they wanted to they could probably charge people for a meet/greet/sing with the band package and make even more money. I doubt the people paying to see the band would even notice it wasn’t a professional group doing the singing.

    To the poster that was “filled with rage” about this… it might be time to shut off your internet, you clearly can’t handle it and may have issues you need to work out.

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