Artists riled by use of their names on posters

Several urban artists appearing on a poster advertising for a free show in Blantyre dubbed Youth Festival, have taken turns to distance themselves from the event scheduled for yesterday afternoon.

From Friday, social media has been awash with flyers which indicated that urban artists such as Phyzix, Fredokiss, Piksy, Tay Grin, Malcelba, Janta and Dali would perform at the said Youth Festival at Kanjedza Ground in Limbe, Blantyre.

But most of artists appearing on the poster have separately denounced the flyer, saying they have not been approached by anyone and are, therefore, not part of the event.

In separate interviews, the artists said they were saddened with the development. The advert for the festival has also been running on MBC Radio 2FM.

In a WhatsApp interview from South Africa, Fredokiss said the development is unprofessional and unfair as it will reflect negatively on his career as an artist.

“The problem is that our fans will take these posters seriously and when we do not show up they will think we are taking them for granted. It is very obvious that whoever did that does not wish us well,” said Fredokiss, who was in South Afrca to attend fellow rapper Gwamba’s traditional wedding over the weekend.

Piksy, who at the time of the interview was in Lilongwe preparing for his show the same afternoon, said the false publicity going around would affect the turnout of his planned shows.

He said: “This is really bad. I have a show in Lilongwe today [yesterday] and some people may  not attend thinking that I will be in Blantyre. The flyers have been circulated a lot more than our own and I could even feel the effect during my show yesterday in Mchinji.”

Phyzix said it is bad for the industry when some people use other musicians prominence and influence to advance their own gains.

“This is all a lie. On Sunday I will be at church in Lilongwe with my family and friends. I do not even have any idea who is behind this show. It is all lies,” he said.

When contacted, another artist appearing on the poster, Macelba only said: “I do not know anything about this bro. As I am talking to you I am home in Lilongwe resting.”

Another Lilongwe-based artist, Janta, also expressed his surprise with the presence of his name on the flyers.

Efforts to establish who is behind the festival did not yield any results as all the artist we talked to said they had no idea either.

But Entertainers Promotion’s Tonderai Banda admitted to have received a ‘strange’ call over the weekend asking to hire equipment from individuals who did not reveal their identity.

He said: “The people who called were not very open as to what event it was,” he said.

By the time of going to press, we had not yet established if the planned Youth Festival was indeed taking place and who was expected to perform.