On Saturday, a friend’s husband turned 60 here in Belgium. He had a beautiful party, surrounded by his friends and his entire family. Well, almost his entire family. She was missing in action because she’d bought tickets to Burna Boy’s concert in neighbouring Holland on the same night as her father’s party. She’d also convinced two of her friends to go with her. She loves Burna Boy, and despite being born and raised in Belgium, she’s very proud of her Nigerian roots via her mother.
She is a strong advocate of Naija music and absolutely Burna Boy is one of her top favorites. She had been looking forward to this concert for months, and when it turned out to clash with her father’s birthday, it was a difficult choice to make. Take the 2 1/2-hour train ride from Antwerp to Arnhem for Burna Boy or catch a 45-minute bus home to Turnhout for her father’s party? The latter was expected but the former promised her an unforgettable experience. He father didn’t mind that she would be MIA at his party and encouraged her to go.
I thought of her as we ate and drank at the party, imagined how much fun she was having at this concert that she’d sacrificed a lot for. She is in the middle of her exams, and usually wouldn’t go to a concert, “but this is Burna Boy!” And she normally wouldn’t miss her father’s milestone birthday,” but this is Burna Boy!” So, my heart broke for her when I heard that Burna Boy was a no-show. According to the organisers, Burna had an unavoidable flight delay. However, in an Instagram post he put up to apologise and announce a new date, Burna wasn’t as precise as the organisers about the reason for the cancellation. He said he wanted his fans to have the best “Love Damini” experience and he wouldn’t have been able to deliver.
Both excuses are lousy especially as this isn’t the first time he’s disappointed fans by cancelling on them or keeping them waiting. Plus the ‘travel issue’ excuse sounds familiar. He’d used it in 2022 when he was a no-show at the World Creole Music Festival in Dominicana.
Burna Boy isn’t the only one of our artistes to have disappointed fans by being a no-show at their own concerts in recent years. Or to have had ridiculous reasons for doing so. Kiss Daniel didn’t turn up for his concert in Tanzania (although he was already in the country) because allegedly “the airline did not bring his bag that had his gold chain.” In 2021, Wizkid turned up late for a performance in Abuja, and stopped after a few songs because “the sound is terrible.”
In December 2022, same Wiz didn’t turn up for a performance in Accra because of unspecified “safety issues.” Four years ago, Seun Kuti missed his performance at the Grammys due to “ticketing error’ that made him unable to catch his flight. Less than a week later, he kept us waiting for hours in Atlanta when he turned up late for a concert because of some delay with their luggage at the airport.
These performers don’t seem to realise that when we, their fans turn up to see them, it’s at the cost of everything else we could have been doing with our time, and at some cost. I went for Seun’s concert with a group of friends. Those with young children had had to find babysitters (and pay them); some folks had had to drive quite some distance. We had rushed our dinners. We cleared our schedules way ahead of time. We put in varying amounts of effort to make it work. And that is what these artistes ought to understand and respect: their fans make sacrifices – big and small- to fill those arenas they, the artistes want filled up.
Coming to a concert isn’t just strolling out of bed and walking down to your sitting room in your PJs. So to turn up late or not at all is disrespectful to your fans. If you know that flight delays could make the difference between being on time and being super late (or not turning up at all), why not build that into your planning? Arrive the day before perhaps? Or plan to arrive many, many hours early? Is that really a difficult thing to do? If your gold chain is your unmissable talisman for performing, then carry it on you. Or wear it.
The truth that these artistes don’t appear to get is that they are in a symbiotic relationship with their fans. Without fans, without people coming out to see them in concert, buying their music, they wouldn’t have a career. And when they sign contracts to perform, they must live up to their contractual obligations except in cases where it is unavoidable because we know life happens. Illness. Family emergencies. Damaged vocal cords. These are some ‘unavoidable reasons.’ Flight delays really, should only rarely feature here. And missing gold chains not at all. Certainly not at the level of Burna Boy and Wiz.
I don’t know if Burna has lost a fan in my friend’s daughter, as Seun did in me but I do know that she must be terribly, painfully disappointed. I would be.
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