On paper, it all looked picture perfect.
Bringing Jah Prayzah and Winky D — the giants of Zim music — to England to give a break to thousands of Zimbabweans based in the UK through a family show on a summer day in Leicester.
Add another colossal artiste in Makhadzi and dearly loved Mambo Dhuterere, Selmor Mtukudzi and Shingai and you have a party worthy being dubbed “Africa Music Festival 2023 — The Legends Tour” — a party no Zimbabwean can resist.
There is no way such a show can be a flop.
The long and arduous work shifts for the majority of Zimbabweans based here makes everyone long for the sight of familiar faces, the underrated sound of Shona — a break.
So just gathering these hardworking Zimbabweans makes the event a success.
But give them a show!
Not what was dished out.
After drawing over 4000 Zimbabweans from all over England to Leicester and after flying such big artistes all the way from Zimbabwe — give them a show!
Part of the disappointed crowd at Y2K show.
The organisers, Y2K Entertainment, unfortunately failed to give people a proper show, even with all the aforementioned ingredients laid on a platter before them.
Y2K shot themselves in the foot and have no one to blame but themselves.
If you fly an artiste from Zimbabwe, they are under your control.
You provide them with transport, you book them in a hotel, you are in charge of their schedule.
How then do you mess up things so badly in a country as organised as England?
Here, times are cast in stone.
If a show ends at 10pm, no amount of negotiation can make it end a minute later — and everyone knew that!
You have 10 hours for the show and you fail to give the three main artistes — Jah, Winky and Makhadzi — an hour each?
You are providing them with transport but cannot have them on the stage in time, how?
Winky D only started performing at 20:10, he performed for almost a full hour but after that, only a disaster was left to happen.
Makhadzi and Jah Prayzah had to somehow “share” the remaining hour.
When Makhadzi started her first song at 21:05, with closing time set at 22:00, it became apparent that a disaster was imminent.
The disaster started soon after Makhadzi left the stage in a huff after only performing one song!
“They won’t let me perform because they only want Zimbabwean artistes to perform,” she blurted before ushering her dancers off the stage.
The crowd felt her pain and started chanting her name so she could be brought back on stage but it was in vain.
Even when the MC announced they can bring Jah Prayzah instead, the crowd felt Makhadzi was hard done by and continued to chant her name.
It took a while for Jah Prayzah’s band to set up their instruments and even at 21:20 he had not started performing.
His last “song” was an apology — as he has done on every show organised by Y2K over the years.
While Jah Prayzah’s camp refused to comment, this writer has it on good authority that they have never had a good outing under Y2K.
Makhadzi, on the other hand, was more blatant and issued a statement expressing her displeasure even at the money she was paid.
She stated that she was only paid half a million rands (about US$26.800) — contrary to whatever they had agreed.
Makhadzi said, “I was booked to perform for an hour, my time slot was constantly moved up, Winky D performed for 80 minutes eating into my time and had to share 40 minutes with Jah Prayzah, I performed for only 10 minutes. The promoter used my brand and Jah Prayzah’s to sell tickets. There was a plot to damage my brand and I am sorry Zimbabwean.”
After that, everything was deflated.
Even nature intervened- with the rains spoiling the stage as Jah Prayzah was about to start performing.
Half the stage had no cover from the rain and the microphones had to be moved into the “shade”.
It was a disappointing end to an otherwise impressive day and that last hour will cast a blur over everything Y2K have spent months working for.
Even this fan on Facebook knew how to plan a better show.
“Such a poorly planned show, artistes were supposed to start at 12 but some no name only started at 5 and he was the worst. I cant believe they stopped Makhadzi from performing at 7 so they give some girl called Shingai an hour to perform and she was so boring. They should have just said Makhadzi at 7, Winky at 8 and Jah at 9 then everyone would have had plenty of time to perform.
Jah Prayzah’s was rushed, the sound was off and he had like 30 minutes to perform. It was a mess, the worst show” posted the fan named Gabby Charwadza.
Another fan who commented on anonymity said the organisers did not do their job well.
“This year was the worst show from Y2K. They need to improve otherwise next year they will lose us. They had a strong line-up but failed to maximise it worse, their poor stage work and sound makes it more like it was a rushed show.”
