North West may be a nepo baby, but she’s still just a 10-year-old kid-Laura Harman-Entertainment – Metro

North West is the daughter of two of the most famous people in the world (Picture: Kevork Djansezian/Getty Images)

North West’s Lion King performance was absolute garbage. One of the most embarrassing and unfortunate forms of nepotism I’ve ever encountered. Horrible choice. It was an insult to have that child up there.

Those were just some of the countless negative comments about Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s 10-year-old daughter, North West, at The Lion King’s 30th anniversary concert at the Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles last week.

But I believe that she has been heavily criticised by people who need to grow up.

The production featured several star-studded performances, including Jennifer Hudson singing Can You Feel The Love Tonight, Jeremy Irons (who voiced Scar) returning to his iconic role to sing Be Prepared, and Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella (who voiced Timon and Pumbaa), singing Hakuna Matata.

North took to the stage to sing I Just Can’t Wait to be King as a young Simba. She looked adorable in an all-yellow outfit and danced, sang, and stayed relatively on time while performing for 17,500 people.

She isn’t a child actor or a theatre star and her ability to step into this role for a one-off gig as an untrained celeb was to me, impressive.

I can’t say in all honesty that she can vocally compare to a professional, but I also truly think that watching the entire anniversary special, her song wasn’t out of place and was a fun addition to the collection of acts that night.

Unfortunately, she has since been torn to shreds, after footage of her performance made its way to social media. Grown adults have publicly critiqued a 10-year-old and commented that she got the role because of nepotism, she can’t sing or dance, she clearly didn’t rehearse – oh and her outfit is rubbish.

Of course, nepotism had a hand to play here.

This is the same child who graced her first magazine cover at the age of five, appeared as a voice actor in the Paw Patrol movie, and announced earlier this year – after featuring on her dad’s albums – that she’s releasing her own album called Elementary School Dropout.

She is the daughter of two of the most famous people in the world and for that reason, people want to see her perform – whether she is good or bad.

But her fame doesn’t entitle people to publicly troll her. She is a child and speaking negatively about a 10-year-old on the internet is so weird.

North West’s fame doesn’t entitle people to publicly troll her, argues Laura (Picture: Monica Schipper/Getty Images for Daily Front Row)

Like it or not, North is a famous name who made a notable performance. A child star who has musical theatre experience may have given a vocally or theatrically better theatre performance – but people may not have cared to watch it.

And there’s no guarantee a performance from a trained child theatre actor would have been a better celebration for the 30th milestone. How would it have been any different from the performances that take place every week in the West End or Broadway?

Surely, the reason North was included in this show was because they wanted to make something different and special to celebrate the occasion.

People have only watched that one clip of North doing the rounds on social media and formed an opinion

North wore a loose bright yellow costume with a furry hood and fluffy boots as she sang and danced with the cast. 

@GinaUriarte commented on X: ‘North West’s costume also looks incredibly out of place. Lion King costumes are so beautiful and intricate and she’s stomping around in a yellow hoodie.’

Even those who didn’t want to comment on her singing felt her wardrobe choice was still fair game.

@crimsonrambler said: ‘I won’t comment on the performance of North West at The Lion King live show, because she’s 10. But, what the hell is she wearing? Who thought, hey, she needs to look like Simba, pull out the yellow barrister wig? I’ve seen Walmart onesies that look better.’

Her look may not have been in keeping with the outfits worn by the other artists on stage, but no one seemed to comment on the fact that the other guest stars didn’t even wear costumes for their songs.

Where’s the hate for Jeremy Irons turning up on stage wearing a fedora and a skinny scarf? That’s not very Lion King-y but people didn’t seem to bother.

Jeremy is likely not getting any hate because people haven’t seen his performance. People have only watched that one clip of North doing the rounds on social media and formed an opinion based on something entirely out of context.

There is an argument to be made that Kim and Kanye shouldn’t have let their daughter perform in this production, knowing that it would leave her open to hate.

But parents shouldn’t have to turn down major opportunities for their kids because people on the internet can’t resist verbally abusing a child. North shouldn’t have to miss out on once-in-a-lifetime chances because her parents are famous.

If Judy Garland didn’t help get her daughter into the theatre industry, we wouldn’t have the icon that is Liza Minelli.

Ultimately, this argument boils down to anger that nepo babies have a leg up in an extremely difficult industry that gets harder and harder to break into – and that’s fair enough.

But let’s not focus anger about a much greater issue on a 10-year-old who will one day be able to see the horrendous digital footprint left behind by people who should have known better.

Do you have a story you’d like to share? Get in touch by emailing jess.austin@metro.co.uk. 

Share your views in the comments below.

Entertainment – MetroRead More