Nigerian Afrobeat singer Kizz Daniel was Monday night released from a police cell in Tanzania after he failed to show up for a fully paid concert on Sunday night in Dar es Salaam.
The “Buga” hitmaker had been paid his full fees, which the Nation has since established to be $60,000.
Kizz Daniel had just landed in Tanzania from Uganda, where he had staged a sold-out show and was slated to perform at the Summer Amplified concert at the WareHouse arena. Revellers had paid Tsh20 million ($8,650) for VVIP tickets and Tsh50,000 ($21.6) for regular ones.
Upon arrival in Dar es Salaam with two of his managers, the singer was booked at the Johari Rotana Hotel.
It’s at Rotana that he told the event organisers that he would not take to the stage without one of his gold chains that was in his luggage that was misplaced at Julius Nyerere International Airport.
“He only said he could not perform because the airline didn’t bring his bag which had his gold chain, yet he had another gold chain on his neck,” said a livid Steven Owa, the main financier of the concert.
“But he wanted everything. Harmonize came to help with the jewels, I brought him different clothes, but he refused, saying just because the airline didn’t bring one of his bags he could not perform without his gold on his neck.
“I spent nothing less than $300,000 on that show. It was a big show. It wasn’t a joke. The table for the show was set for $5,000 and the highest table was set for $10,000.
Str8Up Vibes
“I feel so bad. My company (Str8Up Vibes) is new here and we are just trying to set it up. My associate from America, whom I booked Kizz Daniel from, cried all night, begging him to go to this show.”
After he refused to perform, police were called and Kizz Daniel was picked up from the hotel and taken to the Oysterbay Police Station.
He was released later around 10 pm and was expected to pay for the damages before returning to Nigeria.
“Kizz Daniel has been released. His legal team will, however, report back to the police tomorrow while he will subsequently return to Nigeria,” the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission tweeted at 10.03 pm.
As news reached concertgoers that Kizz Daniel would not be performing, angry revellers left and demanded a refund.
“Big Step Consultancy wishes to apologise to the public for what happened at the Summer Amplified concert slated for Sunday, August 7th, 2022 where the headline artist Kizz Daniel who was fully paid failed to perform as planned,” said a statement from Big Step Consultancy.
“We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience this caused our customers who trusted us and supported our event partnered with Str8up Vibes.”
“We would like to assure the entire public and fans who paid and showed up for the event that we are doing all we can to ensure that appropriate measures are being taken to make sure that everyone involved is held accountable and our customers and fans are taken care of and we kindly request your patience as we deal with this.”
Str8Up Vibes also put out a public statement apologising for the inconvenience caused and promising fans who had paid that the promoter would “make sure that they are taken care of”.
