REGRETTABLE & SAD FOR AFRICA:
Nigeria’s Music Star WIZKID, Band boys Deny AMERICAN P VISA for Open Air Concert in California…Missed Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival April 14, April 21
*Unable to obtain U.S. Work Visa due to issues in Band boys’ documentation
* Missed performance as first Nigerian act on Coachella world stage
* Angry crowd ridicules Wizkid asking if he’s banned from entering USA
* ‘BAND had some visa issues…I’m upset but see y’all next week. #GhettoboyStory #Coachella’-Whizkid
*INDIO POLICE report fewer arrests at this year’s Coachella festival
* “WE officially announced that Nigerian musician Wizkid would not be able to make it to the United States to perform”-Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival MANAGEMENT
BY GEORGE ELIJAH OTUMU/AMERICAN FOREIGN BUREAU CHIEF in California
NIGERIA’S MUSIC SENSATION AND SONGWRITER, AYODEJI IBRAHIM BALOGUN, famously known on stage as ‘Wizkid’ is not a happy man at the moment. He is very sad that his dream of playing at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, being one of America’s biggest shows in California has gone down the drain due to his not been able to renew his United States work Visa and secure same working Visa for his band boys.
A member of his band group had confessed to this reporter they had already done multiple music rehearsals, while Wizkid was to raise Nigerian flag high on the stage, as he takes the anxious crowd through his various danceable, scintillating music. But this ‘Ojuelegba music crooner’s aspiration was short-lived, as inconsistency were not only discovered in his band boys travelling documentation, incoherence was allegedly seen as ‘ a red flag’ when he tried to even renew his own P Visa which would have enabled him perform anywhere in America.
According to this Wizkid’s band member, they did not file for their P Visa on time, as United States maintain its standard of Visa issuance on merit, integrity and calendar time in law and order. “We had arrived the United States Embassy in less than 2 weeks and we were certain we would all be issued P Visa each so we may embark on our trip to California and play at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, located in the Inland Empire’s Coachella Valley in the Colorado Desert. But we were told individually during interview by the Visa officer that there were inconsistencies in our travelling documentation, as we learnt that Visa processes are now very strict, having new regulations. We were all sad, as it was obvious that our show for April 14 in United States was only a dream afterall.”
When asked how come Wizkid who had been previously traveling most often to United States could not also get his own P Visa, the band member lamented: “Wizkid is a good leader. He had placed all our documentation ahead of his own at the Visa officers’ counter desk, so that after we may have obtained our own working Visa, then he renews his own. We spent a long time trying to assemble all our documents, yet could not acquire this P Visa. By the time Wizkid turns in his own passport for P Visa renewal, time had gone, as it was already late.”
Wizkid sensed that his history making performance as the first Nigerian to have played at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival would be dashed forever if he did not apologize to hundreds of African-American fans waiting to feel his music vibes. Pronto, he apologized and begged to perform afresh on April 21, a week after his first botched show, thinking all would be well. Naija Standard witnessed that Wizkid took to Twitter on handle @wizkidayo saying: ‘Band had some visa issues…I’m upset but see y’all next week. #Ghettoboystory #Coachella.” Yet, much as tried, he could not secure the renewal of his own P Visa, nor acquire working visa for his band boys.
Angry crowd expressed disaapointment:
Pensive crowd, so irked they could not witness the LIVE music performance of Wizkid storm Twitter and began to throw jabs at him directly asking if he is banned from entering United States, among other questions. For Anieks @aniekeme, she posted on Wizkid’s Twitter timeline, “Wizkid @wizkidayo was hoping to see you at Coachella 🙁 are you banned from the US? We missed you at Made in America too 💔.”
Kemi Adebila, a Nigerian born American undergraduate in Harvard University who purposely flew down to witness Wizkid’s show expressed outrage as she told Naija Standard, “Why are some Nigerian musicians always behaving this way? Is it today he has been coming to United States? How come Wizkid could not organize his life? Why must he make all of us suffer just waiting for him, yet he promised us twice, still failed. This is very sad for Nigeria.”
Chinedu Ogbalem, a google special assistant in Washington DC who was also around with two of his colleagues felt so shameful that Wizkid could stand them up like that. His words: “Did you know that Wizkid stood up the organizers of the festival, including many of us that paid to see him play on stage? At the last minute, he was still in communication with the organizers assuring them he and his band boys are coming to the festival, whereas he knew he lied to all of us. What an arrant nonsense? I have resolved never to attend any concert Wizkid is billed to perform anywhere in the world since he has proven unreliable.”
Wizkid ought to perform April 14, 2018 by 1pm after he had long been announced to play. He apologized, promised to show again on April 21 (a week after), Saturday from 2:45 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. on the Coachella Stage but failed to turn up.
Sensing the mood of everyone, the Management of Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival quickly put up a statement saying: “WE officially announced that Nigerian musician Wizkid would not be able to make it to the United States to perform.”Wizkid was booked, his name was announced in the line-up, and two slots, over two weekends were allocated for his set. But he missed his placement due to “his inability to get US visas.”
Some Africans now argue that Wizkid did not just miss this chance, but sealed Africa’s chances. Due to the significance of the his set at such a global stage, the Afrobeats movement did. He missed a crucial moment to bring Nigerian music to a diverse audience, at arguably the biggest music festival in the world. The timing was right. Wizkid, due to strength of his art, and the efficacy of his deals, found himself as the anointed one from Africa to do that.
When Wizkid missed his spot at Coachella for the first week, the social media uproar in Nigeria was huge. Afrobeats (the Western classification for any pop record by an African artist) has just began to push for a place on the global stage, and Wizkid, with his deal with RCA, collaboration with Drake, and a few other placements is regarded as the face of it in Nigeria, and by extension, parts of Africa. Although the genre is yet to break out of the underground scene in the US, the general belief is that Wizkid currently stands the best chance of making that possible.
So sad Wizkid wasted this rare opportunity to establish Nigerian music to wide range of audience at the global festival.
Meanwhile, Police report fewer arrests at this year’s Coachella festival as multiple arrests, citations, during the final weekend of the show in Indio edged up from the first weekend, Certainly, festival-goers were better behaved than last year, according to police statistics released Tuesday. Police arrested or cited 128 people at the Empire Polo Grounds between last Friday and Sunday, compared to 106 the previous weekend, bringing the two-weekend total to 234.
For the records, in 2017, police arrested or cited 277 festival-goers, including several people taken into custody for a rash of cell phone thefts, with one man caught with more than 100 stolen phones in his possession. Police this year mostly dealt with drug or alcohol intoxication, which comprised 84 arrests or citations, while 35 attendees were cited for carrying a false ID and two were busted for possession of drugs for sale. The other seven citations were for undisclosed violations.
Police also handed out 206 traffic citations during the second festival weekend: 108 for “various motor vehicle driving violations” and 98 for unlawfully using a disabled person’s parking placard.
DMV investigators said they teamed with Indio police to check 1,989 placards and cited 135 concertgoers over both weekends.
Indio police said that no arrests were made in connection with a last-minute delay in the opening of on-site camping spots due to severe winds, which sent thousands of visitors scrambling to find places to stay Thursday at various temporary locations throughout the Coachella Valley.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRhXZEfV1UE
