In all honesty, the massive failure of the concert did not in any way project a good image about the hospitality of Liberians.
However, we cannot sit and cry over a spilled milk, but put mechanism into place to avoid the recurrence of such incident. I am of the conviction that this article will help organizers of future events’ planners to avoid losses and project a better image about the hospitality of Liberians.
Firstly, the organizers used emotions instead of intellect to solve a simple problem.
I do believe that the matter could have been handled in several different ways which could have led to the successful hosting of the show.
When the matter of payment before performance was first brought up by King Caro, the organizers should have risen to the occasion and come to terms with her quietly.
This would have reduced the noise and prevented other artistes from joining the strike.
Instead, the organizers decided to use their emotions to solve the problem instead of their intellect. They got angry with her for making such statement. In fact, they later removed her from the artistes’ line up. This was a fatal error, and they paid for it terribly.
That action could partly be because they felt that she (King Caro) was just a local artiste whom without the show could have gone on.
As of the composition of this article, King Caro has the number one song “Baby” in the country on Audio Mark.
She is the only Liberian artiste who have been featured on Instagram official page.
Her recent performance in Freetown was super crazy with Sierra Leonians dancing to her hit song “baby”. She is also the first Liberian artiste to travel with her entire crew outside of the country. Currently, she is unarguably the hottest female artiste in the country.
Therefore, the mistake of the organizers underestimating her influence is one factor that led to the failure of the show. Negative news spreads the fastest, so it is important to have it under control before considering damage control. That’s a free Public Relations tip. Take it!
Secondly, the publicity of the event was extremely poor.
As a business person, it is not wise to invest hugely into a product or service and disregard marketing. NO!!!! Don’t do it!
No matter how good your product or service is, people will not patronize if they are not aware of it. Fortunately for them (though they did not utilize it), Kizz Daniel is a mega star.
Marketing his concert is not like marketing an underground artiste.
Oh! Maybe, it is because of that they downplayed promotion.
From the look of things, the organizers were more interested in Kizz Daniel than making their money from the concert.
Speaking from an outsider perspective, I would say that they did nothing to promote the event.
An event like this needs billboards, radio jingle, and flyers for at least a month before the event.
This will create a lot of awareness for the event and the company as well, because Kizz Daniel needs no introduction. The event was so underpromoted that no major blog in Liberia was carry it. It was later after the King Caro drama that few bloggers started blogging about it, but for the negativities surrounding the event.
Thirdly, give all the information!
One of the errors the organizers made was to keep the price of the tickets private. This was so wrong. Liberians are not stingy people.
The MTN Liberia Music Awards charged $50 as entry fee with no international artiste; people paid and attended the show. Why would you think that Liberians will not pay $20 around the field to see Kizz Daniel?
Instead of the organizers projecting the entry fee, they put their numbers on few handbills and instructed individuals to call and ask for the price of the tickets. No one has time for that.
That act alone undermined the event because people assumed that the tickets to the event were extremely expensive which was not the case.
Next time, let people know the price of the ticket to budget for your event.
Lastly, treat local artistes with respect so that they too can promote your event.
It was very insulting to spend that amount of money on Kizz Daniel including renting a private jet for him, and leaving the payment of local artistes at the mercy of tickets sales.
According to the organizer herself on Liberia News Agency (LINA), Kizz Daniel arrived late in the country because the private jet company received their money very late.
Even if the organizers didn’t have all the money to pay local artistes on the spot, they should have made at least fifty percent (50%) payment before the show and sign a contract agreement to pay the remaining 50% after the show. The artistes could have agreed to this because there is a contract binding the organizers to pay their balance money after the event. This was definitely going to be a win-win situation.
The Blame Game!
No matter who is blamed for the failure of the show, serious money was lost!
However, it is important to give my opinion since everyone is giving theirs.
First and foremost, Mc Caro is not on any payroll that she collects monthly allowances from. She depends on her arts to pay her bills. Music nowadays is like charity. They spend lot of money to produce and fans download them for FREE. The only place they make their money is from endorsement deals and their performances at events.
We all know how getting endorsement deal is like in Liberia. Mega companies are not promoting our local artistes, so they only rely on the income from performing.
The monies from her performances are used to pay her bills and take care of her crew.
How do you expect her to release new songs when she is not collecting money for her performance? How many of you will be willing to assist her if she is evicted from her house like Picardo?
It sounds funny when people criticize her for not performing for free and call her a nonentity.
If you call Mc Caro a no body and at the same time blame her for the failure of the Kizz Daniel show, then you don’t know what you are saying. A nobody cannot sabotage a megastar concert.
If she was able to sabotage the entire show, it means that she is Bigger than Kizz Daniel in Liberia. That’s just the naked truth. It takes an artist to be able get people boycotting a megastar like Kizz Daniel concert.
For those who were saying that she should have performed for free because it was an exposure for her are the most uncertain group.
Have you ever asked yourself whether local Nigerian artistes perform for free when international artistes go to perform in Nigeria?
Over twenty (20) international stars including actors, musicians and comedians have come to Liberia for events. How many Liberian artistes have gotten the so-called exposure?
Don’t event talk about Kobazzie because his music is not played in Nigeria. Davido was on Make it Bounce remix, how many radio stations in Nigeria played it or how many bloggers blog about it? How is that an exposure when your music will be played only in Liberia or the Liberian communities in the diaspora?
Paul Flomo and Broda Shaggi made a comedy skit in Liberia during his visit to Liberia. The skit was only posted by Paul Flomo, it never appeared on Broda Shaggi’s page. How is that an exposure?
Remember that Liberia is not the first country that Kizz Daniel visited, which local artistes did he promote from any of the countries he recently toured? This is how we have been used and don’t benefit anything.
Believe it or not, the failure of this concert will change the industry forever and thanks to King Caro for leading the way. No planner will make that same mistake after seeing what happened to the organizers of the Kizz Daniel concert.
Thanks for your time and I hope we can support our local artistes to become bigger than Kizz Daniel, Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido, etc.
By: Lassana M. Dorley, II alias Dorley Dorley
Representative Aspirant
District #3 Bomi County
