By McLloyd Kudzingo
Musician Shaffie Phiri popularly known as Driemo in music circles has announced that he will not perform at this year’s Blantyre Arts Festival (BAF) in order to show support to his fellow artist ‘Jay Jay Cee’ who will be launching his album next month.
Breaking the news on social media, Driemo said he has made the decision to show support to his friend ‘Jay Jay Cee’ who has been working hard lately to prepare for the forthcoming album launch.
” I would like to take this moment to announce that I am not performing at the Blantyre Arts Festival which is an annual event that takes place during the first weekend of October,” reads the statement in part.
Driemo further explained that he was booked to perform at this year’s BAF festival earlier this year and he accepted.
According to the Ntchisi-based singer, a month after being booked by BAF organizers, Jay Jay Cee also announced his album launch dates which clashed with the festival’s dates.
“Realizing that an album launch is the biggest moment for every artist, our management decided not to promote the festival which we had been booked but instead offer to perform for free at Jay Jay Cee’s album launch,” reads the statement.
The ‘Popo’ hit maker has since apologized to Blantyre City Council, and BAF organizers for not showing professionalism in his field of work.
BAF organizers who did not promote their event in the first place came in last minute to promote the festival using media houses, a thing which forced Jay Jay Cee to reschedule his album launch from October 7 to November 4, 2023.
