Jennifer Lopez has come under fire for serenading Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, the president of Turkmenistan on the occasion of his birthday this past weekend.

She performed for him at a lucrative private gig organized by the China National Petroleum Corporation. The problem is that President Berdimuhamedow and his government have a pretty dismal record on human rights issues. Once media reports began to circulate, JLo made statements to the effect that she wasn’t aware of his political record; her people apparently vetted the gig but she’s sorry about it now.

Just how bad is President Berdimuhamedow? Human Rights Watch considers his government one of the most repressive in the world. His regime is infamous for suppressing freedom of expression and imprisoning journalists, widespread torture in the criminal justice system and a policy of forced labor, including child labor. That’s for starters. If JLo’s people couldn’t find that information, they must not have been looking too hard.

It’s not the first time headliners like JLo have been caught with their hands in the dodgy foreign cookie jar, of course. In 2011 as Libya joined in the Arab Spring revolutions, a flurry of big stars — including Beyonce, Mariah Carey and Nelly Furtado — scurried to distance themselves from the private concerts they’d performed for Muammar Gaddafi and his family. Some of them vowed to give away the millions they’d earned but that kind’ve begs the question: if you really don’t need it, why do it in the first place?

We all know big stars like George Clooney and Leonardo di Caprio do crappy commercials in Europe and Japan that they wouldn’t dream of lowering themselves for in North America. We get that $10 million per movie just isn’t enough to support the lifestyle they’ve become accustomed to.

So is singing for a despotic ruler that much different? Wouldn’t most of us do a little song and dance for a cool $1 million or so, even if it is for an autocratic, undemocratic government?

Some people wouldn’t. Actor/musician Steve Van Zandt (the Sopranos, Lillyhammer) took a break from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band in 1984 and among other things, took a trip to then-apartheid era South Africa. He was horrified that so many major artists played high-paying gigs at Sun City — people like Ray Charles, Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Elton John and Queen among many others. Sun City was a resort for rich whites that was located in one of the supposedly independent states created by the South African government to arbitrarily relocate its black population. Steve’s first idea was to shame the artists who played there, but he decided to make a statement instead.

Artists Against Apartheid was born and included 54 artists like Bob Dylan, Miles Davis, Run-D.M.C., U2 and Afrika Bambaataa. The song they recorded, “I Won’t Play at Sun City,” earned about $1 million for Van Zandt’s campaign against apartheid. It’s credited with helping to raise awareness among the general public about the grim realities of the oppressive and racist regime.

When it comes to tyrants, you can cash their checks or take a stand. That’s the choice.