WINE CHATS: Nepotism and North West’s Lion King performance debacle

Have you heard about North West butchering her Hollywood Bowl debut, or do you reside under a rock?

This week on The Nightly edition of Wine Chats, we’re chatting about North West and the nepotism that got her a gig at one of the most sought after performances, The Lion King anniversary concert.

Let us be clear: we’re not here to pick on a 10-year-old. Rather, we crack open a tiny bottle of Eight at the Gate’s fizzy shiraz and ask ourselves, why wasn’t Northie better protected?

We’re not bagging a child, but the parents are fair game…

Billi: Okay. Let’s talk about Northie.

Lyndsey: Can I just start with something? I want to put a disclaimer out there for myself. I can’t speak for you because we never know what’s going to come out of your mouth. We’re not bagging her, the child.

Billi: Let’s explain what we’re talking about. If you’re not keeping up with the Kardashians, she (North) recently did this Broadway performance where she was Simba in the Lion King production.

And it was a professional production. It wasn’t like a school kind of thing. It was proper Broadway. And, um… there was a lot of feedback about her performance. Continue with the disclaimer.

Lyndsey: Oh, I’m allowed to talk now. Yes. I just feel like the whole situation is unfair of how she got the role and why she got the role.

We don’t really know what went on behind the scenes but I think it’s crap that all these people missed out on performing, that actually can perform when North cannot perform.

I’m so sorry. I’m such a huge Kardashian fan, but I think it was so crap of them, as in the parents.

Whether they pushed for her to be on stage or demanded for her to be on stage, whatever the situation was.

I know we all love our children and think they’re amazing, but they must know that she can’t sing. Why would they put her in that situation for this, for people like us and everyone else to be talking about it in a negative way.

Billi: And that’s a really good point to make as well. I went on a little bit of a shallow dive, I dipped my toes in a little bit on how this all came about because so many mums whose kids were applying to be Simba for that production came out of the woodwork saying there were four of us left and then Kim came in with North and North got the role.

Like you said, why would you put an unprepared kid in?

There were definitely people out there who were saying that she’s had a go, she’s a 10-year-old kid, she’s gone out there, she’s done her best.

But I guess the point is it’s Broadway and the people who are supposed to get that role, that wouldn’t have been their first performance.

They would have practiced, they would have been trained. They would have been trained singers.

There are kids who do this their whole lives to be able to get into those roles. But then we get a kid whose mum and dad are just really, really famous. And again, this isn’t a let’s bag North. It’s got nothing to do with her. This kid has taken an opportunity that was given to her.

Why wouldn’t she?

Lyndsey: And it’s not a school production where it’s like, oh, good on you, Northie for giving it a go. Like our school’s doing Mary Poppins, you know, good on the kids that are doing it cause they’re going out of their comfort zone.

Billi: No, no. It’s a proper Broadway show. So totally different calibre.

Lyndsey: I just think Kim and, I don’t even like saying his name, he is such a knob, I think they should have protected her more.

Lion or chicken?

Billi: The other thing I also want to note is, what was she wearing?

Again, this has nothing to do with North. Please don’t take this as us bashing a 10-year-old kid because I know that that’s coming across a lot like that.

But if you’re in a professional production, she kind of just was thrown out there in her pajamas in what to me looked like a Yeezy get up, very much something that Kanye would go out in because they’re so big, they feel like they can do whatever they want, but ultimately it does fall down to everybody just picking on North.

Lyndsey: Yeah, because she’s the one wearing it. It didn’t even look like a lion, it looked like a chicken.

Billi: Once you said it, I couldn’t unsee it.

Lyndsey: It’s a chicken suit.

Billi: Can we just play a little bit of the audio so we all kind of have an idea of what we’re talking about?

Lyndsey: We just heard the part where the performer should have hit the high note and wowed the crowd. But it’s literally her just yelling.

Billi: It’s not in key. It’s just kids singing like they would at home. There is just no sense of professionalism in that performance. I think that because Kanye recently released an album, nobody really heard about it.

Lyndsey: That’s because nobody likes him.

Billi: I listened to Kanye West quite a bit when I was younger. And before he was what he is now.

So I actually quite enjoy his music, but when he released this album, she was on it, she had a little rap bit in one of his songs and she came out as Miss Westy? Miss Northy? Anyway, she got a rap name. And so she did this little rap bit for him in one of his songs.

I think that’s the perfect place for that. That’s your dad’s song. Your dad’s music. You’re both a little bit kooky. Do your thing. But then off of that, putting her in a production of this calibre, they just set her up.

They set her up to fail. They threw that kid under the bus. And then they clapped and took photos. And now we’re all just stuck with this performance in our brains.

Lyndsey: This horrible, ugly chicken trying to sing on stage.

Billi: But nothing against North, you do you, babe.

Lyndsey: Look, I think she’s great. Just not on the stage.

Be better

We wrap it up by telling parents, especially Kim and Ye, to be better and do better for their kids.

We know you think your kid is amazing, but please let this be a lesson not to throw them to the wolves, lions or chickens because of your skewed view of their talent.

Thanks so much for joining us for another great episode of Wine Chats Podcast here on The Nightly!

Join us again next week, same time, same place. Until then oh we just can’t wait to be kiiiiiing! Cheerio!