The Tiwa Savage incident this past weekend, where she was left stranded in a hotel with unpaid bills after music promoters ghosted her, unearthed the mess that is our entertainment industry.
There are concerts that have come and gone without incident, and then there are those ones like this past weekend's The Baddest which functioned as a launch event for Redsan's latest album, that left a bad taste in the mouth of a performing artist.
Exactly where the buck stops, however, is difficult to ascertain. We spoke to a source who helped shed light on the relationship between artists, PR companies and the elusive concert promoters, when it comes to putting together a major gig like The Baddest.
Whereas a PR company's job is to create hype through media engagement - that's press conferences, interviews, meet and greets - and to chaperone the artist for the duration of their stay, the promoters facilitate these activities by booking the artist and providing the funds to make sure the artist's stay is as comfortable as possible. The accommodation and upkeep of the artist is the sole responsibility of the promoter. Which brings us full circle to Tiwa Savage's complaints.
https://twitter.com/TiwaSavage/status/1041529220629970945
This is not the first time Kenyan promoters have come under fire for being unprofessional. Last month, Akothee took to social media to call them out for paying Kenyan artists peanuts compared to foreign acts who come to perform.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxSy7V7mz-A
Last year, during the BBQ Live concert headlined by Wizkid, the story was the same. The whole show was a complete disaster in terms of security and general organisation of the event.
To add insult to injury, they blatantly disregarded the concerns raised by Kenyan acts like Fena Gitu and H_art the Band while giving priority to Wizkid. H_art the Band had their performance cut short halfway through their performance and didn't get VIP passes to enjoy the rest of the show. Redsan and Nameless had to stand in the rain, just to get a glimpse of Wizkid's performance.
Clearly, our promoters need to get their act together.

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Author
Alix Grubel

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