Lilongwe-based talented musician Lulu on Saturday expressed displeasure with the way local artists are treated during performances compared to international artists.
His remarks came after he observed that some personnel at Club 24/7 in Blantyre were gathering empty bottles and kept on moving on stage without minding his live performance.
“If it were an international artist performing, you would not have been doing this but because it is a local artist, you don’t care. Give us the respect that you give to international artists. I am here giving it my all and you are distracting me with your movements, collecting bottles,” Lulu said amidst cheers from the huge audience that patronised the gig.
He went on to say that people should treat Eli Njuchi, Zeze Kingston and all other local artists the same way they do with international artists.
Lulu was the last artist to perform at Club 24/7 in the early hours of Sunday in a show that started on Saturday night.
Despite his delay in jumping on stage, the artist, with his Mathumela Band, rewarded the audience with a more-than-one-hour performance and it turned out to be the lengthiest of all the acts on the night.
On his itinerary, Lulu, who kept up his tradition of wearing shorts, served several of his songs that had people singing along and they included ‘Magwiragwira’, ‘Kumalembe’, ‘Hannah’ and ‘ Tsogolo’.
Unlike in his other performances where he plays the guitar, this time around he did not but, rather, glued himself to the microphone for the singing, coupled with his dance antics that excited the audience.
Lulu came on stage soon after the audience had enjoyed the performance of one of the artists of the moment Zeze Kingston, famed for the Amapiano genre.
Supported by a DJ, Zeze showed liveliness and connected with the audience throughout serving songs such as ‘Alamu Anu’, ‘Ndathela Pano’ ‘Lero’, ‘Chule’ and ‘Vuto Ndichani’ but his set was short as he still needs more songs in his tray.
“I am speechless with the support that I continue receiving. This keeps me going,” Zeze Kingston said.
His signature tunes of Tiyeni!Tiyeni! (Let’s go) were on song with the audience further saying they wanted to party with Zeze.
Piksy and Nepman also performed at the gig.