Clout Chasing: 5 Instances Celebrities Have Stirred Controversies To Stay Relevant

Fame is fickle. It’s like a spotlight cast on a person and that light dims with time, it moves swiftly to find its next subject. With fame comes attention, power and an open door to wealth but like smoke in the wind, all these can be gone in a heartbeat.

In a bid to remain in the public eye, some celebrities go as far as stirring up controversies or engaging in a publicity stunt to stay relevant.

After all, all publicity – good or bad – is publicity.

Below are five instances celebrities have stirred the hornet’s nest to just to stay relevant.

Skiibii

Skiibii | Jaguda

On the morning of August 14th, 2015 Skiibbi was announced dead. The former Five Star Music artiste was said to have collapsed on his living room floor, where he was found without a pulse and rushed to the hospital.

Eulogies and condolences poured in from fans and fellow celebrities alike. A few hours later, it was discovered the artist was hale and hearty.

He was forced to issue a statement following the backlash that ensued as many felt he had gone too far by joking with issues of death.

Making it more sensitive was the fact that the entertainment industry had lost a number of talents in recent times. Safe to say, faking his own death didn’t do much for his career at the time.

Tekno

Tekno. Photo/ BellaNaija

If you were a passerby at the Lekki toll on August 2nd, 2019, you might have come across singer, Tekno gallivanting in a transparent truck carrying semi-nude girls. Maybe you were in your bed asleep at the time or doing whatever is you do but you must have surely come online to the reactions that his action sparked.

In a video that surfaced on social media, the girls, four in number, danced around a pole and Tekno himself.

A trail of mixed reactions followed the video and the singer went on to release the controversial music video from which the Lekki toll gate incident happened.

Like Skibii, following the backlash, he tendered an apology to the general public for the viral video of semi-nude women dancing in the transparent truck.

It is interesting to note that prior to this stunt, Tekno had just recovered from a health condition with some critics claiming his career was cruising to a slow death.

If this was the case, what better way to revive it than shock value? While some people’s moral sensibilities may have been offended by the scandalous video, we were definitely shocked to remember that Tekno is still very much around.

Paris Hilton Sex Tape

BROOKLYN, NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 10: Paris Hilton attends Savage X Fenty Show Presented By Amazon Prime Video – Arrivals at Barclays Center on September 10, 2019 in Brooklyn, New York. (Photo by Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Savage X Fenty Show Presented by Amazon Prime Video )

Prior to 2003, Paris Hilton was barely known. Her big break came in 2003 when she starred with her socialite counterpart Nicole Richie in the Fox reality series The Simple Life, in which they lived for a month with a family in the rural community of Altus, Arkansas.

However, a week before the show debuted, a sex tape featuring Paris Hilton and her then-boyfriend Rick Salomon was leaked onto the Internet.

When the series eventually premiered on December 2, 2003, about a week shortly after the leaked Hilton’s sex tape, its first episode attracted 13 million viewers.

The high viewership was attributed to the exposure Hilton received for the homemade tape.

Just in case you think of going the sex tape route, do well to ask Kim Kardashian for tips.

Lady Gaga

Lady Gaga | Photo: Billboard

In 2010, Lady Gaga was the most nominated artist at 2010’s Video Music Awards with a record thirteen nominations. She had earlier arrived at the event in an Alexander McQueen dress and later changed into a Giorgio Armani dress.

However, she changed into her third and final dress for the night – a dress, hat, boots, and purse made of raw meat – to accept her Video of the Year trophy for “Bad Romance”.

The meat dress was immediately described as the “most outrageous fashion moment” of the evening. The dress was condemned by animal rights groups and made international headlines.

Miley Cyrus

Miley Cyrus. Photo: Marie Claire

At some point in their career path, celebrities try to re-create their public image to better suit their personality. But did Miley go too far?

In her early years, Miley Cyrus was a Disney teen idol thanks to the success of her role in the Disney series, Hannah Montana.

However, with time, she began to tire of the Disney teen star label. One of the first dramatic change was her feature on the 2008 cover of Vanity Fair magazine.

The cover image features a shirtless Cyrus looking over her shoulder while holding up a satin sheet as her bare back is displayed. 10 years later, Miley Cyrus was not apologetic about the pictures.

Later on, another set of racy images leaked in which the “Party In The USA” star was clad in bikini plus a wet t-shirt shot which was intended for her then-boyfriend Nick Jonas.

Perhaps, the biggest makeover move, even bigger than her sexuality was her performance at the 2013 VMAs award show in which she twerked on Robin Thicke.

“Smilers! My VMA performance had 306,000 tweets per minute. That’s more than the blackout or Super Bowl! #fact,” she tweeted the next day.