For him, it seems he
rubbed his Zambian fans the wrong way, just at the Kenneth Kaunda International
Airport, upon his arrival for the much publicised concert – with what is being
called a cold shoulder treatment.
The Nigerian angered music
lovers when he refused to receive flowers from a lady upon arrival and the Buga
hit-maker also refused to take questions from journalists at the airport.
Now, with Zambians, that’s
something that doesn’t get swept under the carpet as if nothing had happened –
it was the song of town, especially social media the whole time. A video
showing the musician snubbing the woman and members of the press went viral on
social media soon after, with many calling the artiste all sorts of names while
calling for an apology or risk a total boycott of the show.
The organisers, Try Lounge
Pub and Grill, quickly organised a press briefing where the artiste gave his
side of the story – call it an apology if you like. According to him, he was
going to reach for the flowers before his security guy intercepted and got the
flowers instead.
“Actually, he is the one
that should be apologising,” he said as he asked the hulking handler to
apologise. Well, he apologised and it seems Zambians had accepted the apology
if the turnout at the show was anything to go by – because, it was surprisingly
huge.
It was not going to go
without drama anyway. Suffice to mention though, the artiste, obviously in an
attempt to win over the hearts of his angry Zambian fans, did receive another
set of flowers from the lady at the airport as he was coming down for the
presser.
This time around, he was
seen engaging in a cozy interaction with the lady before walking away with the
flower bouquet.
At the show, you should
have seen the lighters that had been lit for him as he performed his Buga song
– the jubilation from the audience that had earlier threatened to boycott the
concert was something else too. It was almost as if they had forgotten their
earlier covenant.
Or it could be the artiste
is just too good that he may not be ignored, no matter how one wanted to. At
one point, a lady, obviously under the influence of either pure love for the
singer, song or some intoxicating substance, jumped onto the stage and the
unsuspecting security personnel didn’t see how she flew onto the artiste for a
hug. Of course, we all know how such stunts end up, at places such as these.
The stage was big, and
Zambian artistes were to have a piece of it. Towela Kaira impressed with her
live performance and so did her brother Chef 187. Oh! The man of the moment, Yo
Maps was also among those that shared the stage with the Nigerian singer.
In fact, his performance
may have been loved by the fans, but behind the scenes, it seems Yo Maps wasn’t
as impressed at the organization. His manager DJ Kandeke had a lot to say after
the show about how his artiste and other local stars were treated.
According to Try Lounge,
an inquest into the show has been conducted and it promises to look into all
the short comings in order to make future concerts even greater. Well, at least
that is what their business developer Vusi Khunene claims.
Vusi says there was a
disconnect between the organisers, artiste managers and artistes themselves in
the lead up to the concert. He then promises to organise a workshop on July 13
to bridge the gap.
“I have been in the
industry for over 15 years now and I saw the disconnect. We shall have industry
leaders from South Africa and the continent to come and share with the
creatives here on how we can bridge this gap. All the artistes that performed
and other interested artistes are welcome to this workshop,” he said.
All in all, all things
being equal, it is safe to say Kizz Daniel understood the assignment,
regardless.
This article was also published in the Zambia Daily Mail newspaper of Saturday, July 1, 2022.
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