Must not be happy about Walmart

Pharrell Williams has courted controversy after performing his chart-topping hit Happy at Walmart's annual shareholders meeting.

The infectiously upbeat song, which has generated hundreds of copycat covers on YouTube, has been criticised as a jarring choice given the sustained attacks against Walmart over the low-wage conditions of some of its employees.

At the end of his performance, in front of 14,000 Walmart workers and shareholders in Fayetteville, Arkansas, Williams invited attendees to "put your hands together for Walmart guys, for making the world a happier place".

According to Business Insider, neither Pharrell or any of the celebrities who performed - including Robin Thicke, Sarah McLaughlan and Harry Connick jr - were paid, because they want to curry favour with the retail giant which is visited by 35 million shoppers every day. Hugh Jackman performed at the same event last year.

Recently, Walmart has been the subject of a renewed wave of criticism centred on revelations that many of its employees are forced to rely on food stamps and other government subsidies to supplement their income. According to one highly publicised report Walmart employees receive $6.2 billion in government subsidies annually - a claim which has been emphatically disputed by the company.

Williams has sinced faced a storm of social media backlash.

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