Did North West just nepo baby too far?
Don't blame a 10-year-old, blame the adults
Before we get into North West’s performance as Simba in the Lion King live concert, I want to make one thing abundantly clear. This is not a post attacking a 10-year-old girl.
This is however, a post criticising her parents and the production company, for putting North in this position in the first place.
Over the weekend, Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s daughter, performed ‘I Just Can’t Wait to be King’ at The Hollywood Bowl, in celebration of the film’s 30th anniversary.
Alongside North, Jeremy Irons reprised his role as Scar to sing the absolute belter that is ‘Be Prepared’. While Nathan Lane and Ernie Sabella aka Timon and Pumbaa, were joined by the original young Simba, Jason Weaver, to sing Hakuna Matata.
Not to mention, Lebo M, the composer and musician, whose iconic opening Zulu vocals, are what we all try to emulate when singing Circle of Life.
This wasn’t a school play, this was a 17,500 seat concert and if North’s parents weren’t who they are, there’s no way she would have got that role via auditioning.
As clips of North’s performance made their way round social media. I’ll admit I did initially chuckle at a couple of the comments. Particularly, “She got her mum's voice”, along with “And her moves”.
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
But as more people waded in, sharing their outrage at her casting, critiquing her singing, outfit and lack of effort, I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her.
Why are we aiming our nepo baby anger at a child instead of the adult’s responsible?
Giving North that role was not only unfair to other child actors who are trained in musical theatre, but also to North herself.
Of all people, Kim knows how harsh the Internet can be and while she appears superhuman in her ability to ignore it all, I highly doubt a 10-year-old can.
Imagine a child at school repeating those negative comments back to her or North reading them alone in her bedroom.
Even if North was a singing child prodigy, putting her on that stage isn’t something you can take back. That childhood innocence is so short, why would you not try to hold onto it for a bit longer?
Tiktok failed to load.Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
It’s not just North, I felt the exact same way about Beyonce having her daughter Blu Ivy on tour.
Beyonce may have started her career young, but she didn’t start with that huge of a platform.
If your children want to follow the same path as you, why not just wait until they are at least 16. Instead of putting them out for public consumption at an age where I wasn’t even allowed to get my ears pierced.
The blame also lies with the production company behind the decision. Of course they knew what they were doing with that casting. None of us would be talking about the live action Lion King concert if it wasn’t for North’s involvement.
Publicity casting is nothing new and North isn’t the first person to get a role through her parents alone. However, the difference is, there is a noticeable difference in skillset between her and other musical theatre wannabe 10 year olds.
It’s like when YouTuber Joe Sugg was cast in the West End’s adaptation of Waitress. He got a lot of negative press for taking the role from an actor, but as someone who had watched a fair few of his videos and his run on Strictly, I knew he had the talents for it.
The reaction to North, however, does confirm that this wasn’t the right casting choice and I just can’t imagine why you would put a child in such a vulnerable position.
Even if North was the one to champion herself for the role, as a child, she isn’t able to make a considered enough judgement, which is why I’m so disappointed an adult didn’t intervene.
It makes me think of old Hollywood stars like Judy Garland. We hear the horrors she went through - abused, drugged and forced on diets - and think, how could they get away with doing that to an 11-year-old?
Greed.
Totally agree. I think it’s also often the case that those commenting don’t realise just how young she is.
Great points. Child neglect, so awful.