Burna Boy’s ‘Lagos Love Damini’ Concert brews controversy, badblood

The show was meant to be an electrifying start to 2023 as Nigerians turned out massively to watch Afrobeats biggest export open the year with his flattering catalog. However, the reverse turned out to be the case as thousands of fans were left in Lagos’ windy harmattan cold while they awaited the arrival of their beloved megastar for over 8 hours.

‘Lagos Love Damini’: The January 1st was Burna Boy’s Nigerian leg of his global album tour in which he has sold out arenas across Europe and America.

The Grammy-winning artiste was to headline the Lagos Loves Damini show on New Year’s Day with the cheapest ticket going for N30,000. Thousands of fans trooped to the venue with hopes of seeing the music star but ended up waiting for hours before his eventual emergence on stage.

The VIP and VVIP sold for 70,000 and 100,000 respectively. There were also platinum tickets that required fans to cough out between 3 – 10 million naira.

The show which was meant to start by 6 pm at the spacious beach ground of Eko Energy City, didn’t start until past 10 PM when it was opened by an explosive performance by the DJ and the MC.

The DJ performance ran until past 12 AM warming up the crowd and preparing them for the entry of Nigeria’s Grammy-winning megastar.

At 1 am the DJ stopped playing and fans expected that this indicated Burna Boy’s impending arrival. However, things couldn’t have been farther from expectation.

The concert simply entered a lengthy period of inactivity as the thousands of fans who turned out couldn’t tell what was going on or if Burna Boy was even at the venue.

The speakers began experiencing some issues some minutes past 1 AM with the sound ceasing in between. This was followed by an abrupt stop in the performance of DJ Lambo who at this point was entertaining a gradually frustrated crowd.

As at 2 AM, there was still no sight of Burna Boy and the DJ was not playing either. It was radio silence from the man of the hour and the organizer, and this inevitably led to restlessness in the crowd some of whom started throwing bottles on the stage.

At 3 am the MC came on stage to announce that Burna Boy was ready to perform and his band needed to set up their instruments, therefore, asking the now livid crowd to desist from throwing objects at the stage.

The MC even went ahead to state that the band won’t set up unless the crowd stopped throwing objects at the stage and this only made them angrier.

Burna Boy shows up unremorseful, unapologetic, and unbothered: Burna Boy’s first act at the event was from backstage where he announced his presence by stating that he has been around since 9 PM but some technical difficulties had stopped him from performing. The Grammy winner then curiously delegated the task of fixing the situation to the crowd and whoever cared to do something about it.

He was received by boos and he didn’t attempt to calm the thousands of fans who had turned to see him or tender an apology for keeping them waiting for over 8 hours.

Instead, he stated that he had been around since 9 PM and he could have walked away from the concert if not because he loves his fans and because Seyi Vibez pleaded with him.

Burna Boy didn’t fail to remind the thousands of people present that he has watched on while they accused him of murdering someone at a Cubana night club and also that his mother was a backup dancer for Fela. He concluded by stating that in spite of all these, he still loves them and God will punish whoever doesn’t love him.

“Just to show you say I still love una, I no go even lie for you, If no be Seyi Vibes sef I for don dey go house but I dey here with una after una don talk say I kill person for Cubana, after una don talk say my mama dance for Fela, no wahala I still love you na why I dey here, so if you like no love me, na God go punish you.

8 hours wait for a 1-hour performance: After delivering what was more or less an anathema on his long-suffering fans, Burna Boy opened his performance with “Tell me what you see when you look at me?” and the crowd thunderously replied the famous line of his hit collaboration with Asake. And with that line, all was forgiven.

Burna Boy’s performance started around 3:30 AM and he performed till 4:42 AM which was just over an hour.

He took the now-placated fans on a journey of his timeless hit songs and they sang along with vigor and delight.

While he performed, thousands of fans began to gradually make their way out of the venue.

One hour and a few minutes into his performance, Burna Boy delivered his international smash hit ‘Last Last’ and the heartbreak anthem brought the show to an end.