- Wizkid, Davido & Tekno booked for festive gigs
- Trio appearance fees range between 2 – 6 million Naira
THABANG REGOENG
Amid strong international recognition across music charts, local event organizers have secured a major coup in booking Nigerian pop artists Wizkid, Davido and Tekno for the upcoming festive period shows.
Davido’s 30 million World Tour will hit Gaborone on 28th October at Duma grounds, while a week later, Tekno Miles will headline Fables Fest 2017 while Wizkid’s Diamond City Concert will be on 2nd December.
Over the years the afro beat and pop sound has catapulted itself across the global music scene, almost as quick as Nigeria’s economy. The rhythm of the current popular Naija genre has led to several collaborations, among them with American artists in Rick Ross, T.I, French Montana and Drake. Such is the aura of this trending genre; local companies and promoters have caught the fever and are not blinking twice about in demand Nigerian pop singers, much to the satisfaction of local revellers.
Information relayed to Time Out suggests that the Pana hit-maker, Tekno, pipped Trey Songz for the annual Fables Fest show which was headlined by Rick Ross last year.
However, unlike the Rick Ross show which was a considerable flop, the booking of Tekno has created a lot of buzz in Gaborone as the Nigerian artist has a large local fan base. The afro pop artist’s illustrious music career took off in 2013 through a single release ‘Holiday’ featuring Davido. He later climbed up the stardom ladder releasing hit singles ‘Diana’, ‘Duro’ and ‘Pana’ as Sony Music swiftly got him on board.
Meanwhile Ayodeji Ibrahim Balogun, better known as Wizkid needs no introduction to afro pop lovers; it can be argued that he is the biggest thing in the Nigerian afro pop scene. He rose to prominence in 2010 with the release of the song ‘Holla at Your Boy’ from his debut studio album, ‘Superstar’ (2011). ‘Tease Me/Bad Guys’, ‘Don’t Dull’, ‘Gidi Girl’, ‘Love My Baby’, ‘Pakurumo’ and ‘Oluwa Lo Ni’ were also released as singles from the Superstar album. Wizkid’s eponymous second studio album, Ayo (2014) was preceded by the singles ‘Jaiye Jaiye’, ‘On Top Your Matter’, ‘One Question’, ‘Joy’, ‘Bombay’ and ‘Show You the Money’. These hits notwithstanding, it is the international collaborations that propelled the singer’s stock which includes the likes of Drake and Future.
While Wizkid and Tekno will be making their maiden appearance in ‘local entertainment borders’, Davido’s performance in Botswana follows his first at the 2012 Spring Explosion. The talented singer recently took to social media that Gaborone will be part of the 30 Million World Tour which features 28 locations across Africa, North America and Europe.
Interestingly according Buzz Nigeria, an online magazine, Wizkid makes N4-N5 million per show, Davido N3-N3.5 million while Tekno appearance fees is around N2 million.
Time Out caught up with Diamond City Concert organizer, Bruce Nkgakile who gave an in-depth interview on the value Nigerians brings to the festive shows.
“People should understand that from a business point of view, an in demand Nigerian artist like Davido pulls spectators to the show. The artist has a huge fan base in Botswana and across the African continent so it makes sense to book him to come perform at our show. Not only are we going to benefit as organizers, Davido’s booking will also give local artists a chance to upgrade their profile and possible collaborate with him,” Nkgakile explained.
Quizzed on how much money was splashed to book the ‘Fall’ hit maker, Nkgakile remained tight lipped stating the contractual terms do not allow the information to be made public. “Well Nigerian artists are currently in demand so to book them one needs to go all out, so we are talking millions in appearance fees,” he said.
The public will be notified by the respective show organizers on tickets sales across social media platforms in the coming weeks.