Tay Grin, Theo rebuffed by African Unplugged organisers
Despite all the efforts made by Tay Grin and Theo Thomson to perform at the African Unplugged music festival in the United Kingdom, the musicians were given a cold shoulder by the organisers, branding their nominations as a scam.
The two Malawian celebrity urban musicians recently went on a cyber campaign on Facebook and Twitter, mobilising votes from their followers to get possibly a once in a lifetime chance to perform at the largest African music festival in Europe, which took place Monday at Wembley Arena.
However, Nyasa Timeshas established that though the two fulfilled all the requirements to represent Malawi at Wembley, Tay Grin was not invited while Theo, who was already in London where he is based, was snubbed regardless of his presence at the show.
In separate interviews Tuesday morning, the two artists, who have a song together titled ‘This May Be Love’ off Tay’s album ‘Proudly African’, confirmed they were rebuffed.
Expressing his frustration, Theo told Nyasa Times: “It seems we were used as a marketing strategy with no intention of us performing. I was there but was never given the opportunity to perform.”
“They kept passing the buck,” he added. “I’m disappointed I didn’t perform and upset with how I was treated. My fans voted in numbers and we won a spot to perform at Wembley [but] Malawi wasn’t even recognised, is that right?”
In his reaction, Tay Grin aka ‘Nyau King’ described their nomination as a scam and shared Theo’s sentiments saying “It seems to me they used us just to get publicity”.
“I’m told we were meant to perform, apparently they were expecting us [but] no one contacted me. Theo went there since he is already in the UK but he didn’t perform as they gave him the run around.
“It was a huge scam all along. They wanted to use us to promote their show,” claimed the rapper, saying when he tried to contact them, “no one was picking up.”
The African Unplugged organisers are yet to respond to Nyasa Times’ questionnaire, to confirm whether the Malawian musicians were shortlisted for the concert and to get their take on the assertions that they only wanted to use Tay and Theo for publicity.
The Concert was expected to feature 20 acts drawn from 15 African nations under one mic with the aim of educating, motivating and inspiring all by shedding light on mother African and the issues she is facing as well as seeking to celebrate the spirit of Africa through music, comedy and dance.
Among the renowned African artists, the line up included 2 Face (Nigeria), Zahara (South Africa), Cabo Snoop (Angola), Chameleone (Uganda) and Mc Inity (Zimbabwe).
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