King Promise and Wildaland; proof of an existing problem.

Artiste and event organizer misunderstandings is not a new thing to the music industry around the world, but it appears to be rampant in African music circles. It is either artistes and their management accuse event organizers of not honoring payments, or the latter accusing the former for not showing up to an event due to a bevy of reasons. In 2021, an event organizer in Europe went on a social media rant over Burna Boy not turning up for a show he was booked for, due to unclear negotiations. That seems to also be the issue between the organizers of the Wildaland Festival and King Promise’s camp. CEO for the festival, Sadiq Abdulai Abu took to Facebook to express his displeasure and concluding that, “for starters, my channel [di3] all his videos are off, there is nothing I am involved in whether directly or remotely that will involve him [King Promise]“. It later on became evident that, King Promise didn’t show up because his management wanted a full payment of the booking fee as opposed to the proposed half payment before the show, and the other half a week after the show by the organizers.

In a phone call conversation monitored by FOURTH AVENEW on 12th January, 2022 on Hitz Fm’s Daybreak Hitz show, host Andy Dosty appeared to have resolved the developing issue between King Promise’s camp represented by Erasmus, and CEO of 3 Music Networks and Wildaland festival, Sadiq Abdulai Abu, after days of social media and radio rants by the latter. In that same phone conversation, two things became apparent, of certain practices that if not addressed, there would still be issues like this. During the negotiations to book King Promise, 3 names came up which in my opinion, is too many people to talk to just to book an artiste. It would be best if moving forward, labels, management and artistes delegate this task to just one person, to prevent conflicting account of events during negotiations. In respects to payment terms, there needs to be an agreement between all stakeholders (musicians, management and event organizers) to develop a universal payment plan. This way, all parties involved know what the deal is from the onset.

2021 saw Ghana Music position itself to be recognized on the worldwide stage. So now more than ever, all stakeholders need to come together and lend their energy, resources, expertise and talents to this cause rather than bickering over avoidable situations like this.