THE lackadaisical attitude of Nigerian artistes in honouring contracts to perform at live shows has become a matter of serious debate globally.
The trending issue of Daniel Oluwatobiloba Anidugbe, stage name Kizz Daniel, has once again brought such an attitude to the fore. The police in Tanzania had arrested Kizz Daniel, whose hit song, Buga, has been ruling the airwaves, for failing to perform in the country on Sunday, August 7, 2022 at a show for which he had been paid. The promoter of the concert, Steven Uwah, a Nigerian based in Turkey, claimed he had paid Kizz Daniel $60,000 for the show.

Lamenting on an Instagram live session of Ifedayo Olarinde, popularly known as Daddy Freeze, on Monday night, Uwah said he had spent heavily on organising the show, and fans had bought tickets and tables as high as $2000 to $10,000 to grace it.

The artiste actually flew in on time for the show but refused to perform allegedly because the airline that brought him did not bring his luggage, which included a bag in which was a particular gold chain he maintained he must wear on stage while performing.

Uwah said, “Kizz Daniel said the airline didn’t bring his luggage and that he had his gold chain there. He had one gold chain on his neck but he wanted everything. Harmonize (the stylist) came with different clothes but Kizz Daniel wouldn’t budge. I spent nothing less than $300,000 on that show. The highest table was $10,000.

“I paid this guy $60,000 to perform on my show. I had an event app that I wanted to launch with Kizz Daniel. I begged this guy to save my life and career, but he insisted he would not perform without the gold chain.”

An expensive show marred by losses.

Uwah was all agony telling Daddy Freeze how he was swimming in losses after irate fans damaged items in Tanzania.

He said, “The whole venue was damaged. The fridge from Pepsi was destroyed. Martel also gave us a lot for this sponsorship. I didn’t owe him (Kizz Daniel), I brought three designers. I tried to save the situation.”

Uwah said the show had some Tanzania bigwigs in attendance, adding that the country had hoped to host the singer three days more if the event was successful.

“He has to pay damages and perform free for the country and leave. My reputation is at stake; nobody has ever done this to me. Why are you coming here after paying you big money, only to destroy my reputation?

“He has nothing to say and he was only begging that we should do the show on Monday night, but that is a work day, no one would show up. We need to do a free show to gain our reputation back,” the promoter concluded.

Disappointing fans a fashion with Nigerian artistes?

Nigerian artistes seem to delight in disappointing their fans at concerts. In August 2019, Kizz Daniel had been caught in a similar hole when he insisted he would not perform at a concert in Montreal, Canada, saying the organisers reneged on paying him in full ahead of the show.

And just last month, on July 7, 2022, he had arrived late at a show at Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, keeping fans waiting for four hours. He later arrived on stage and gave a 20-minute performance, which infuriated the crowd. In a trending video, the fans were seen screaming for a refund, throwing cups, tissues and other objects at the singer as he performed some of his songs.

The Buga crooner would later go on to apologize to the crowd in a lengthy Instagram post. His excuse was that his passport was withheld at the US consulate in Nigeria until the day of the show, which caused his previously booked flights to be cancelled.

He wrote, “DMV, thank you for showing up last night and sincere apologies for all that happened. For some reasons, my passport was withheld at the US Consulate in Nigeria until the day of the show and previously booked flights had to be cancelled. Same reason I rescheduled the New York show.

“Just for the love and respect I have for you and my craft, I got on the next available flight to New York the second I had my passport thinking I could still make it cuz I just don’t want to cancel another date. I booked a PJ to DMV from New York to make the journey faster but, unfortunately, it didn’t work.

“I went straight to the venue from the airport. We could have moved the show but my team and I believed we could meet up. The performance would have been longer also if the venue had allowed.”

READ MORE HERE: https://www.icirnigeria.org/indepth-seven-nigerian-artistes-that-turned-up-late-for-their-shows/