Explainer: Wizkid Absent At His Ghana And Côte d’Ivoire Show, But Performs In Benin

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Detty december has definitely started off poorly for a lot of Wizkid fans in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire who were done dirty as Wizkid was a no-show to his headline concert in both Accra, Ghana and Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire. A few weeks ago, Wizkid put up a story post about upcoming events in three cities: Accra, Abidjan, and Cotonou. The announcement came as a surprise to many because it had been a while since Wizkid performed at any event in Nigeria let alone headline three West African cities back to back, but it was a welcome surprise.

What happened in Ghana:

Fast forward to a day before the first in the series of the three events with Wizkid as the headliner, he and his team were spotted in Ghana having some fun in preparation for the show the following day. With Wizkid already in the country and tweeting about the upcoming Accra show, it was a no-brainer that he would be delivering an amazing set to his fans; but that wasn’t the case. Fans arrived at the Accra Sports Stadium which is a 40,000 capacity venue as early as 6pm on the night of the show and were hyped for Wizkid to show up. Hours went by, and with Wizkid being super late to the event, many attendees began to leave but some stayed back believing that no matter how late, Wizkid would turn up for his supporters. Several performances were witnessed from the likes of Gyakie, Efya, Darkovibes and so on, except the biggest bird everyone was there for.

After waiting for over 10 hours without seeing a performance from Wizkid, which is why many of the attendees bought tickets, people got angry and were disappointed that they weren’t treated with respect. Fans called Wizkid out on social media, asking him to provide them with answers for his absence at the show. Naturally, a lot of fans felt like it wasn’t Wizkid’s fault and that it had something to do with the organizers of the event. For context, the event was organized by LiveHub Entertainment which is a new entertainment company with the aim of powering “high quality live events across Africa.” The Wizkid Live show in Ghana was the first event they put together and publicity for the show started barely two months ahead of the day it was scheduled to hold. Other fans and attendees of the Wizkid Live show felt like Wizkid had done them dirty by not showing up stating that if he wasn’t paid he wouldn’t have been posting about the event or come to Ghana at all.

Organizers put out a statement:

After what felt like forever, thanks to all the possibilities and theories of why Wizkid wasn’t present for the event, LiveHub Entertainment put out a statement on their official Instagram account saying; “Dear LiveHub Nation, Wizkid breached his contractual obligation last night. We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience caused. We will issue FULL refunds to all who paid for tickets. Please send your barcode to [email protected]. Thank you.” 

While this statement from the organizers wants to clarify who is to blame for Wizkid’s absence, but it only poses more questions. Why did Wizkid “breach his contractual obligations?” Why didn’t most of the other artists perform? Why is it being reported that only 5,000 tickets were sold for a 40,000 capacity venue? What is being done about the reported thefts at the venue? Why isn’t Wizkid commenting on the situation? Well, Wizkid doesn’t play around with his brand and hours later he had something to say.

Wizkid puts out a statement:

In a tweet captioned “Love you Ghana” alongside the Ghanaian flag and a blue love emoji Wizkid shared, “Ghana is a country I hold so dear to my heart, first and foremost I wanna apologise to all my fans! Y’all know I would never do anything, without a serious reasoning behind it. My brand is something I don’t joke with! I sincerely apologise, to everyone who made the effort to come out for me last night. I was charged up, looking forward to doing this show. However, please understand that every decision I made co-sided with honoring my fans, and would only make a drastic decision like this because it was the right thing to do and I had to. Unfortunately, up until the day of this show, there continued to be safety and production issues that prevented me from putting on a high quality show that my fans deserve. My Team and Myself are working on delivering a show to my amazing fans in Ghana. It will be just us, me and you. Date and details soon. Love you.”

https://twitter.com/wizkidayo/status/1602015884494643202?s=46&t=5_15BLdbs5SLZjKJ_w262g

Basically, Wizkid said that he couldn’t perform due to safety and production issues that came up. Reportedly, he had intentions of bringing out Chris Brown and Popcaan during his set and because of security and production quality concerns, he chose to not perform at the show. He however has promised to deliver a make up show for his fans in Ghana with details to be announced soon.

Wizkid misses Abidjan show:

Following his statement, Wizkid hopped on the jet to where we all assumed would be Abidjan to honor his obligations and show up for the second show in Côte d’Ivoire, but that wasn’t the case. A lot of people feel like this has become more than just the organizers and production for him to do the same thing two times in a row. According to the MC at the Côte d’Ivoire show, Wizkid had been paid to be there. The organizers have said members of Wizkid’s team already in the country would not be allowed to leave the country until the issue is sorted out.

Wizkid performs in Benin:

Apparently, Wizkid was headed to Benin and not Côte d’Ivoire. He was present at the Cotonou leg of the shows and delivered an amazing performance. It is important to note that the Abidjan and Cotonou shows were organized by the same company, Moov Africa, as part of the We Love Eya festival. Many Wizkid fans at the event have shared videos of how much fun they had and are happy that Wizkid put on a great show. King Promise was also in Cotonou where he performed alongside Wizkid, and Bella Shmurda came out for Wizkid too.

https://twitter.com/sikaofficial1/status/1602174512958738434?s=46&t=5_15BLdbs5SLZjKJ_w262g

What else:

The full details of what is happening with Wizkid’s team in Abidjan are still unknown but memes about how Wizkid and King Promise are rehearsing an apology to Côte d’Ivoire fans have begun to emerge. King Promise who was also meant to perform at the two shows Wizkid missed, put out a statement that feels like it was just copied from what Wizkid said and it hasn’t been met favourably.

https://twitter.com/iamkingpromise/status/1602038427494809600?s=46&t=5_15BLdbs5SLZjKJ_w262g