Multiple Grammy winner Angelique Kidjo was not in Nigeria this week. P.M.News can confirm that all the reports that she arrived Nigeria on Tuesday, two days after the Grammy Award, were false.

The report that she spoke Yoruba when she was interviewed at Smooth FM Studio where she met Asa, the Paris-based Nigerian singer, was based on an old video shot in 2013, when she first visited Nigeria, since she left at the age of 13.

And her statement in the short video, where she said she last visited Nigeria 30 years ago, when she was 13 years old, should have set alarms ringing about the fictional report.

At 13, Kidjo was talking about visiting Nigeria in 1973, having been born in 1960.

It was not impossible in referencing the year, she muddled up her arithmetic by saying 30 years ago, instead of 40 years ago.

The management of Smooth FM confirmed to P.M.NEWS on Friday night that a caveat lector and a viewer beware were issued when the video was going viral. But the warnings were muffled by the fake news merchants.

“It was an old video. We did try to set the records straight”, said a top management staff of the popular radio station in Lagos.

It appeared the fake news merchants further dug in on Friday, in pushing their false narrative, with the photographs of Burna Boy, his mum and Angelique Kidjo widely shared on many Nigerian news platforms.

The fake reports located the photographs in Lagos and some reports even said Angelique Kidjo visited Burna Boy and her mum somewhere in Lagos. The precise Lagos location for the photoshoot was not disclosed.

But Kidjo’s social media posts and her tour schedule exploded the lies.

She is not scheduled to go on tour outside the US until 27 March, when she would perform in Vienna, Austria. She has four events lined up from 14 February in the US, beginning with a concert in St. Louis Missouri.

While Nigeria’s news outlets during the week were spreading specious stories about her presence in Lagos, Kidjo was in Hollywood, Los Angeles.

On Thursday, she took a photo posing with an engraving of pop and soul legend James Brown Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was wearing a winter jacket and the photo posted was datelined: Hollywood Boulevard.

On Friday, she posted an adorable photograph beaming in smiles as she cuddles Nigeria’s Burna Boy. Again the photo’s dateline was Hollywood.

The Beninese singer captioned the photo: “The future is One Africa”, along with the flags of Benin Republic and Nigeria.

Burna Boy also posted another photo with the African icon on his Burnaboy World, his official account on Instagram. This time, the photo shows an obviously ‘shy’ Burna, with his mum, Bose Ogulu and Angelique Kidjo, laughing heartily for the camera.

The last time, the multiple Grammy winner visited Nigeria was in March 2015 to perform at the grand Finale of the 2014 Etisalat prize for Literature.

In October 2015, she came along with another multiple Grammy award winner, Chaka Khan to perform at the 4th annual Smooth FM ‘Love Music Love Life Luxury’, which held at the Expo Centre of the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

https://www.pmnewsnigeria.com/2020/01/31/fake-news-angelique-kidjo-did-not-visit-lagos-this-week/

That smooth FM video was even posted on YouTube in 2013.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGB8NsDdTjI