Somtochukwu

Afrobeat singer, Ayodeji Balogun popularly known as Wizkid performed his ‘Made in Lagos’ concert in front of a sold-out crowd of 20,000 capacity at the London 02 Arena, raking in a record N5.2billion in gross earnings

The three-day music event was held from November 28 to December 1, 2021.

Online ticket sales for the various tiers and locations at the arena ranged from $108 to $270. While the Arena floor section had a capacity of more than 5,200 people and sold for an average of $239 (N97,963 at N411/$) per seat. The lower tier of more than 8,800 seats sold for an average of $170 (N69,681). The upper tier of almost 6,000 seat capacity sold for an average of $250 (N102,472).

BusinessDay calculation found that the revenue for each section of the Arena comes to N509,407,600 for the floor section, N613,192,800 for the lower tier, and N614,832,000 for the upper tier. This comes to a total of N1,737,432,400 for the first day, and N5,212,297,200 in gross earnings for the three days the show lasted.

MTN and Udux teamed up with Wizkid two days before the event to stream the concert live on the Nigerian streaming platform, allowing thousands of people who couldn’t attend to watch the show on their phones.

The concert saw him perform songs from his ‘Made in Lagos’ album and other songs from his previous works. Other performances from Chris Brown, which was his first performance in London in 12 years, Skepta, Ella Mai, Buju, shook up the music event and attracted celebrities from around the world like Hollywood actress Gabrielle Union, Stormzy, and Chelsea football club forward Romelu Lukaku.

Afrobeats has indeed got the world’s attention with big award wins and nominations at BET’s Soul Train Awards and Grammy nominations and it’s important to keep up with that relevance with world tours and concerts.

It’s no news that the bulk of revenues for artistes from streaming platforms are generated from worldwide users who are the majority of subscribers and pay as much as $9.99 (N4,106) monthly against local subscribers who pay N900 for basic subscription and a maximum of N1200 for a premium offer.

Tours and concerts are important aspects of their career that can be a lucrative source of income when organised perfectly and not only do they foster a bond between artistes and long-time fans in the diaspora during these events, but also allow the musicians to reach out to new audiences.

The O2 Arena which has been sold out before by Wizkid in 2018 and other Nigerian artistes such as Davido in 2019, and Burna boy in August 2021, is just one if not the least of the biggest venues where music artistes from the United States and Europe have made their marks.

Wizkid selling out a 3-day event at a 20,000 capacity arena opens up doors to bigger venues for Nigerian music artistes to perform and earn more revenues from music tours. And with the huge streaming numbers on platforms like Apple Music, Spotify, and Deezer, getting sold-out tickets in venues like Wembley and the AT & T stadium doesn’t feel like a dream too far to reach.

Read also: Wizkid’s Essence breaks record at BET Soul Train Awards

The success of the concert has seen ripple effects on streaming platforms like Apple Music Uk Worldwide rank putting Essence at number one and the album Made in Lagos Deluxe at number one on the album category of that location.

Ticket sales for the event were first announced on July 27 and started sales online on August 6. In less than 12 minutes, the tickets for the 20,000 capacity were sold out making him the 7th highest artiste globally to sell out the arena in under 15 minutes.

Other artistes in that category are Beyoncé (12 minutes), Rihanna (10 minutes), The Rolling Stones (7 minutes), Gary Barlow (6 minutes), Monty Python (43 seconds), and Spice girls for the record 38 seconds

African music fans living in the United Kingdom who didn’t get to buy the tickets went online to ask for extra days as most of them didn’t get to buy tickets when the record sell-out of any Nigerian act abroad happened.

It was later announced that the O2 Arena tour would be held for 3 days starting from November 28 to December 1, 2021, as the final day for the London tour.

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