Controversial dancehall artiste Shatta Wale has blamed organisers of the 2017 Confederation of African Football (CAF) Awards for his inability to perform at the event.
The artiste revealed that he was disrespected by the organisers and therefore refused to perform.
In what has generated huge public uproar, the awards, which was held at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) on Thursday, January 4, witnessed performances from Nigerian acts, Wizkid, Patoranking, Phyno, Flavour, Tiwa Savage and Olamide.
Congolese singer, Fally Ipupa and Toofan from Togo also performed at the event.
For Ghana, singer Efya sang Ghana’s National Anthem while Kidi interestingly was asked to perform after the event was over, basically to empty seats when the live feed had been cut off.
Shatta Wale was also billed to perform at the event but that never happened.
Explaining to Zylofon FM why he did not perform, Shatta Wale stated: “I don’t have a contract with CAF. Nobody had contacted me. Two days to the event, then someone contacted me that CAF is offering $30,000. I have worked with CAF before and I know they don’t do things like that. Some of us should be very careful in this country.
“We are killing ourselves. I need to be paid well. This is my home. I have taken the money and nobody can take it from me because I didn’t sign any contract with anybody. I don’t know why somebody can just go and collect $30,000, come and give it to me and tell me to go and perform while I’ve not seen my contract,” he added.
The ‘Freedom’ singer recounted that, “When they (CAF) wanted me in Nigeria last year, they wrote emails two months to the event before we were able to seal a deal. We had a schedule. Here in Ghana, two days to the event, someone will call me and say he has $30,000, rush and come meet my manager. As a smart man, I’ll save the $30,000 first and that’s what I did. I then asked them to go and bring the contract to show who agreed that I take such an amount for a show of that nature. So disrespectful!”
Shatta Wale concluded that he had wanted to put the issue behind him and still perform at the event but to his dismay, he was not allowed to even do a sound check.
myjoyonline.com