And Finally Artist News Beef Of The Week

CMU Beef Of The Week #171: Brandy v The 40 people in South Africa who actually wanted to see her

By | Published on Friday 23 August 2013

Brandy

American R&B star Brandy stomped off stage after performing just two songs at a show in South Africa last weekend. The singer was seemingly upset that only around 40 people had turned up to see her.

While I might usually say that artists should perform regardless of how many people come through the door, in this case I can see why it might have been difficult to muster the enthusiasm. After all, the venue she was playing in was the 90,000 capacity FNB Stadium in Johannesburg.

Fellow singer Kabomo described the gig on Twitter, saying: “I have no words for what I just witnessed. Brandy performed to an empty stadium. With the stadium lights on. She sulked after two songs and walked off”.

Brandy is actually fairly popular in South Africa, and had been booked as the surprise guest at the inaugural Nelson Mandela Sport And Culture Day, a day of sport and music in honour of the former South African president.

Unfortunately, unlike most ‘secret’ gigs, where everyone’s well aware of the performance long ahead of time, it seems Brandy’s set was kept so tightly under wraps that almost no one had any idea it was happening. And a delay between the last in a long-line of local artists and the start of her secret set was long enough for an entire stadium to clear. Which is quite a long time.

Even SABC, the TV station broadcasting the show, apparently didn’t know that she was due to perform, as it ended its broadcast of the event before she took the stage too. Although, in the end, that was perhaps a good thing.

So, as we head into the final weekend of this year’s ThreeWeeks-covered Edinburgh Fringe, where competition is tough and low-turn outs are common, performers there should all take note: however few people you may have to perform to this weekend, it can’t be as bad as 40 people in a 90,000 capacity stadium. And once the Fringe is done, I hope you’ll go to Brandy’s London show on 24 Sep to show a little solidarity.



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