LOCAL MUSICIANS led by Juno Kizigenza have backed their counterpart Kenny Sol for breaking the silence and criticizing promoters/event organisers for exploiting their music for little to no cost or delayed payments. This comes after Kenny Sol dropped a bombshell about local artistes’ mistreatment by promoters, who the singer accuses of ‘using artists and their art to fill your pockets and feed your egos’ while undermining the makers. The singer, in an open letter to the public, slammed people who invite artistes for being the problem, while also clarifying why he cancelled his performance last minute during Saturday’s Rwanda Rebirth Celebration concert that US-based Rwandan musician The Ben headlined. He accused concert organisers for failing to honor his contract prompting him to cancel his performance because he realised they were only looking to use him for their own gains. “Last night [Saturday] proved yet again how promoters are savagely willing to use the artists for their own gains. East Gold, how do you expect to sell my image without paying me? Did you think I am that naïve?” Kenny Sol said in an open letter released on Sunday. Reports had earlier emerged that the ‘Joli’ hit maker refused to perform because he was not allowed to sip on Hennessy, something that people back stage described as ‘funny’ but the singer was quick to explain that he could don’t perform before he was paid all his money, as per the contract. The singer and his manager were avoiding yet another delayed payment referring to the fact that Intore Entertainment had not yet paid him yet for his performance during the ChopLife concert back in June. He criticized promoters of acting unprofessional and having a tendency of thinking that they are bigger than artistes in a business that cannot do without them. “You [event organisers] are not doing us any favors. On the contrary, you need artistes to operate your business” he said. “We spend sleepless nights in studios making these records, some of us invest huge sums of money that we don’t have to make music videos and promote our music. It saddens me even when you are aware of all this and you still choose to use artists and their art to fill your pockets and feed your egos,” he added. Kenny Sol said the level of unprofessionalism that has over the years become a virus in this show business is one of the reasons why this industry is still lagging behind and called out fellow artistes to ‘use our voices to not only to sing, but also change the status quo’. Breaking the silence A week ago, a number of artistes missed out on a opportunity to perform at ‘Tay C Live in Kigali’ concert last minute, despite spending days and nights rehearsing, in what Kina Music boss and producer Clement Ishimwe described as lack of respect from Intore Entertainment, the concert organiser. The producer told artistes to refuse any form of disrespect and tell the truth about how they are being treated, most especially by promoters, because most artistes are not brave enough to denounce it. A week after his statement, Kenny Sol broke the silence and the likes of Juno Kizigenza, Ariel Wayz, US-based Rwandan culture singer Clarisse Karasira and Ish Kevin joined the singer’s plea in demanding promoters to stop exploiting artistes. In a detailed statement posted on his social media platforms, Kizigenza hailed Kenny Sol for taking his stance against exploitation, and also slammed some promoters who stand in the way of artistes by acting as brokers or third parties when concert sponsors want to reach out to them to do business. This, he explained, remains one the factors that make artistes suffer financially. “Some artistes have grown to think that music does not pay and become depressed, while others quit music for other businesses because they were fed up with disdain,” he said. “When you do wrong for an artiste, you are doing wrong for the families that depend on them and it discourages the future generations because, in the beginning, we all look up to those who those who have been in this before us,” he added. He called for unity among artistes and urged them strive for dignified treatment and fair pay by looking for professional lawyers who can help them handle the contracts they sign and building capacity of artistes’ management so as to avoid third parties in dealing with sponsors and corporate companies. Some artistes say they have chosen to keep silent about the mistreatment they go through for quite some time for fear of seeing the promoters play a part in ending their careers. Clarisse Karasira also said that artistes are manipulated and criticized by promoters who keep them under their shoes instead of proudly pushing them in their careers. “It’s absurd that people who know how hard it is to put your name on the nation’s map are the ones who pay little to no value to the artistes. I hope with more musicians speaking against it, the change will eventually happen. Artistes we must know our worth and not accept less,” Karasira said Ariel Wayz suggests that artists should refuse to be carried away by such threats and stand firm for their rights and encourage artists to raise their voice high whenever they are mistreated. “You are now going to try and show how Kenny is the one who has the problem and hence put his career to an end. We have to talk about these issues, because, if we don’t, some of us are unluckily going to die of depression,” she claimed. There has been a blame game between concert promoters/promoters and artistes over who is lagging the music industry behind. But to what end is this going to last? Time will tell.
