Paying a pop star to perform at your wedding is so underwhelming. At least, this seems to have been the thinking behind 33-year-old Russian billionaire Andrei Melnichenko's decision to employ not one but four during his nuptials to model and former Miss Yugoslavia Aleksandra Kokotovich in Antibes, France, last month.
Top earner at the event was American singer Christina Aguilera, who received a rumoured $3 million for performing just two songs, alongside other stars including Whitney Houston and father and son singers Julio and Enrique Inglesias.
Although electing to get married on the Côte d'Azur rather than at home, the MDM Bank founder did not entirely forget his homeland. Instead he had a Russian chapel dismantled and shipped, stone by stone, to France for the ceremony.
Guests at the wedding, estimated in some parts of the Russian press to have cost as much as $40 million, included Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chelsea FC owner Roman Abramovich, underlining Melnichenko's impeccable connections.
Russia's youngest billionaire established MDM Bank – today Russia's second-largest private bank – in 1993. As principal shareholder of the MDM Group, he has also accumulated substantial stakes in Russian electricity generator UES. This, according to Forbes magazine's "Russia's 100 richest" list in 2004, earned him 30th place, with a fortune estimated at more than $1.2 billion.