By Sylvester Kwentua

The year 2022 can be described as a year of eventualities in the Nigerian entertainment industry, especially the music section. One major bad trait that was however noticeable among Nigerian musicians in the last year, was the habit of either turning up late for paid shows, or failing to turn up at all.

In this piece, Potpourri reviews some of Nigeria’s top musicians, who had issues honouring shows they were billed to perform.

Kizz Daniel: Evergreen hit-maker, Kizz Daniel in all honesty, had a good year in 2022. Last year can be said to be the year he showed a different aspect of his musical talent. However, despite his success musically, Kizz Daniel was involved in a few controversies he could have avoided, if he had done a few right things.

Kizz Daniel in 2022, had issues turning up for shows he was paid to perform in. In the two times he had clashes with show promoters last year, he didn’t turn up for one, while turning up late for the other.

On July 7, 2022, Kizz Daniel arrived late at a show at the Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, keeping fans waiting for four hours. He eventually later arrived on stage and gave a 20-minute performance, which infuriated the crowd.

In August last year, the police in Tanzania had arrested Kizz Daniel 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 with Daddy Freeze, Uwah said he had spent heavily on organizing the show, and fans had bought tickets and tables as high as $2000 to $10,000 to grace it.

The artist actually flew in on time for the show but refused to perform  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, the promoter revealed.

Kizz Daniel was however released from police custody, and even performed for Tanzanians before flying back to Nigeria.

Peruzzi: In mid last year, Peruzzi was alleged to have been paid N3 million in two installments for a show he didn’t show up for. His client, Mr. Udomah Daniel Idoteyin, through his lawyer, Ademola Adefolaju, demanded refunds for the breach of contract.

According to a letter dated August 4, 2022 titled, ‘Breach of Contract And Obtaining By False Pre­tence the Sum of N3,000,00,00 with Sundry Expenses from Mr Udomah Daniel Idoteyin,’ the lawyer revealed that a of sum N3.67 million was expended on the show, inclusive of artiste fees, hotel and flights reservation. Peruzzi was however not reported to have reacted to the letter.

Wizkid: In December, Wizkid was accused of breaching his contractual obligation after the Nigerian superstar failed to show up for a concert in Ghana. The show titled “Wizkid Live” was billed to happen at a 40,000-capacity stadium in Accra on Saturday.

Wizkid didn’t only fail to show up, he also didn’t give reasons for not showing up, an act that angered his fans, as a video shared on social media showed some of them leaving the stadium by 4 a.m. after waiting for the Nigerian superstar for over ten hours.

Speaking on the development, the organizers of the show said Wizkid breached his contract and apologized to the ticket buyers.

” Wizkid breached his contractual obligations last night. We sincerely apologised for the inconvenience caused. We will issue refunds to all who paid for tickets. Please send your barcode to [email protected].” A statement from LiveHub nation read.

However, Wizkid later apologized, while explaining that his no-show for the Saturday concert was not an act of disrespect to his fans.

2baba: December seemed to be a month of artists failing to honour show contracts, as Tuface was accused by a show promoter, Whale Mouth, whose real name is Usiaphe Kevin, for failing to perform in a show he was billed to perform. The promoter also claimed that his family had received death threats over 2Baba’s absence at the concert in Delta State.

According to Whale Mouth, who addressed the matter, he is “not a fraud” as has been suggested, further stating  that he had paid 2Baba six million naira to perform at the concert.

“I am not a scam, I have never in my entire life stolen or used dubious measures to make a kobo. I paid Tuface in full before December 25, the sum of N6 million, we had a performance agreement contract that was duly signed; we have receipts of payment to prove that. All necessary requirements from us were duly met and on time,” he said.

Whale further said he had received several threatening messages since the incident.

Asake: Also in December, sensational artist, Asake was billed to perform at a show at The Forum, Birmingham in a sold-out show which is part of his “Mr. Money with the Vibes” UK tour. Although he performed in the show, he arrived very late. Asake arrived hours later than agreed, as he didn’t show up at the event until 11 PM. He was met with boos from a section of the audience that was unhappy about the way the organizers went about the show.

One male who attended the show stated on Twitter that the crowd management was poor and caused a stampede, explaining that lots of fans were dissatisfied with Asake’s performance, which he jokingly likened to a Church praise and worship session. 

Asake added fuel to an already burning fire, by initially appearing to take a defiant position after posting a picture of himself flashing a big smile while displaying 100 dollar notes. He then followed up this post with a screenshot of Ebenezer Obey’s famous song ‘The Horse, The Man, and The Son’ which is a song that basically talks about how one can never please the world.

The Terminator crooner however backtracked as he apologized to Birmingham fans for coming late through his Twitter account, later.

“Birmingham I’m sorry for the delay yesterday. The promoters delayed my pick-up time for reasons best known to them, But I’m super grateful for your patience and understanding,” the tweet read.