Kenya’s superstar boy band, Sauti Sol is undoubtedly one of the most successful acts in the music industry at the moment. The group which has had the privilege of performing and entertaining revelers worldwide while wining accolades both home and away also happens to be one of the most sought after bands in Africa.
That being said, you would never expect any kind of promoter or agent to rob the band of their hard earned money, but we are all in shock to actually find out that the band has been cheated on more than one occasion with their highlight being a Congolese man that booked them for a show and refused to pay them.
In a video recorded by the band’s lead vocalist Bien, he dishes out the full details of how the band was conned by this particular Congolese man who invited them for a mega-performance in DR Congo only for it to turn out a scam.
”We´ve previously been conned. I´m sure every artiste has ever been conned. So we had a show in Congo this one time in a place called Goma and it was so successful mehn! We played in a stadium that was packed and we always had a dream of going back coz we thought that would be the norm.But the second time we were invited to play in Goma was by a private-like promoter who had just seen our show previously and was like ´these would be the guys to bring to play on Christmas Eve. So it was the 23rd of December we were to pick our flight from Kigali, Rwanda and everything went well.
On getting to Goma, we first checked in in a hotel and the vibe looked promising. The promoter became a little bit sluggish, every time we ask for food they are like ´this promoter has to first pay for your rooms before you guys get food and stuff like that´. So there were a couple of red flags.
On the day of the show now we head to the venue at like 10 in the night manze. Eh! the venue was a ghost town. There were like 15 people in that place and the sound was whack but we still staged a stellar performance regardless.
Advising his fellow artistes and entertainers, Bien said: ‘Before you perform anywhere, 90% deposit, 10% before you get on stage because after you get on stage, you´re in God´s hands.’
