Ifeanyi’s death, Asake concert crush… events that shook showbiz in 2022

High moments and vicissitudes of fortune unfolding in neverending turns are commonplace in showbiz but 2022 was peculiar in its own way.

The year witnessed conflict, events that stirred constructive discourse, and tragedy that shook the showbiz space.

Ifeanyi’s death

Ifeanyi, Davido’s son with his fiancee Chioma Rowland, drowned in a pool on October 31.

The incident happened within Davido’s residence in the Banana Island highbrow of Lagos.

The local music industry went into a short-lived moment of grief, with associates expressing their condolences.

Following Ifeanyi’s death, the police interrogated eight of the singer’s domestic workers, including his nanny.

The nanny and his cook were subsequently detained for a further probe while the others were set free.

Davido stayed off the stage for a while until he was to perform at the 2022 World cup closing ceremony.

The singer also postponed his long-awaited 2022 Away Festival which was to hold in Atlanta on November 18, while some of his friends and colleagues rescheduled their concerts, project release dates, and birthday parties to honour Ifeanyi’s demise.

Asake concert stampede

Following his meteoric rise to fame, Asake was in the news over a stampede that broke out at his London concert.

The singer put together a show at the 4900-capacity O2 Academy in Brixton where he performed his debut album.

The concert was, however, canceled mid-way after a crowd of thousands breached the doors in the stampede.

The incident left some of the concert-goers injured, with at least eight of them hospitalised.

Two of such concertgoers were later confirmed dead, having suffered injuries that left them fighting for their lives.

Asake also commiserated with victims of the crowd crush, saying his “heart is with those who were injured”.

Botched concerts

The year 2022 witnessed a number of botched concerts and the heated backlash that followed.

It was in August that Kizz Daniel was arrested for failing to appear on time at a Tanzania show he was paid for.

Enraged concertgoers screamed for a “refund” while booing the singer on stage when he eventually turned up.

Stephen Uwa, a show promoter, had earlier alleged that Daniel didn’t perform at the initial Tanzania show because he was not wearing all of his gold chains even though he had one.

After he was released from police custody, he would promise a make-up show.

Similarly, Wizkid provoked his fans in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire after he failed to show up for paid concerts.

This was just as 2Baba failed to show up for a concert in Delta state, prompting some angry concertgoers to go on a rampage.

Davido also had an altercation with Italian promoters who he said failed to pay him for a show in Vicenza.

Portable was also unable to perform at an Italian show after shooting, stabbing, and mugging broke out.

Portable

He was all over the news in 2022 for a variety of topics, controversial and constructive discourse alike.

Portable’s very rise to fame in late 2021 was premised on talks about music copyright and artiste exploitation.

In 2022, the street hop singer sustained this momentum of being at the centre of controversies.

In one such case, he was in the news for physically assaulting one of his signees after an argument.

The singer also claimed to have founded a cult that had terrorised residents in parts of Lagos state years back.

He threatened to assassinate rival musicians nominated alongside him in The Headies 2022.

The police, as a result, ordered a probe into the cult claim while The Headies eventually disqualified him.

Wizkid

One of those moments for Wizkid was when he took a shot at rappers, calling the genre “dead” and “boring”.

This stirred quite some dust in music industry discourse, with many rappers firing back at the Afropop star.

Wizkid was hardly apologetic over his remark, unusually countering critics who berated him for his stance.

Blaqbonez, Uche Ogbodo, Oladips, and MI Abaga are among those who disapproved of the singer’s remarks.