THIS DAY CONCERT GIST GALORE EXTRAORDINAIRE

When Addy and John Legend Locked Eyes via Giant Plasma

It is Tuesday afternoon and I am still suffering from the concert hangover. I have been drinking Power Horse, lots of water and tea with lemon. I am basically trying to ‘regrow’ my voice. I cannot quantify the level of exuberant juvenile indulgence that I exerted this weekend (hmh...ogbonge beke. I hope I didn’t lose you guys there) you guys have heard the breaking news, some of the gist and seen some pictures but it cannot be complete without a perspective from my bubble. Let me start from the very very beginning including how I ended up at the concert.

SATURDAY
So I decided to go to the bank first thing in the morning to get money ‘just incase’ I caved in to the FOMO factor and decided to buy a ticket. I sent several texts to find people who would convince me. But I was a cautious buyer. I went to the mall however and got my sister and her friends the 10k tickets for the Sunday concert. My brother surprisingly is a UB40 fan but he couldn’t justify 10k since he only cared to see one artiste (I’m rubbing off on him quite well). I got to the This Day Media Center and at that point I was like, you know what, it’s ok if you miss it. I mean look at it this way, at least seeing John Legend will always be something look forward to. After all doesn’t the saying go that the worst thing after getting what you want is actually getting what you want. Right? So I got the tix and I left without one for my self. Boy was that walk to the car very long. My face was all hung and when I got into my car, I heaved a sigh, look on to the front passenger seat where I left my JL cd. I picked it up, ran my poorly manicured nail over JL’s picture and put it back down. “Another time Johnny, another time.”
I drove to the hair salon to get my hair done. The plan was that in my free-spirit-hippie-chick style, I would just wear my afro out. I am sure JL would have love to see the real me without my ‘darling yaki’. But seeing as I was not going, I felt that I’d just go ahead with it and jump around my room singing along to his CD. While I was there, I ran into a woman who helped run a charity for abandoned boys. I had the most interesting conversation with her. She told me about some home called ‘Hearts of Gold’ where they took in deformed babies abandoned by their mothers at birth. Some with three eyes, multiple limbs and all sorts of abnormal deformities that Africans attribute to ‘evil’. I have never heard of this place till now so I don’t know how true this is. She also told me about the boys in the home and one case she recently dealt with involving a young orphaned lady who came to their church in search of someone to take her baby as she said she would either throw the baby away or kill it because she would not be able to feed it. Apparently she could not marry the baby-daddy because her uncle would not allow them. The man then abandoned her in the first trimester after a scan revealed it was a baby girl. Anyways after she told me this, I was like, perhaps that what I needed to hear today. But as they say, where there is a will there is a way, and what God has put together, let no man put asunder. Just as I finished chatting with the lady my friend Ayisola calls to tell me that another friend’s sister was selling her VIP ticket for 15k. Now in my head I was thinking that I wasn’t expecting the JL concert to be packed so I would probably end up in the 50k section if I boned my face at security. So I was like SWEEEETTT!! I ran home to get changed. Meanwhile I had heard a rumor earlier that the Saturday concert had been postponed. My friend later confirmed it just as I left the house around 6.30pm to head to the event center. I was like ‘WHOA!!!! That’s even better. More than I really bargained for.” But considering the fact that I was all dressed up and had already heavily powdered my face, I had to find somewhere to go. Shoot!! MAC is like $40 here so I was not going to waste it. I ended up at the usual hang outs; Café Vergano, News Café, Saipan. I was actually going to go home after News Café but somebody mentioned that JL was at Saipan. But the EFFIZY was too much so he was locked away somewhere.

SUNDAY
I ended up back at the hair salon to get my ‘one-nation’ TV hair back. We were told the concert would start at 11am. But I have already mastered Nigerian events. They start 3 hours after the scheduled time. I was right. Shakira came on about 2.30ish but I, my sister and her friends were still at the hair salon. Some how we made it to Lekki at 2.45 all the way from Akoka. I could be exaggerating but my sister was driving very fast. We ran into the house and dressed up faster than fast faster than fast faster than fast (LoL… that’s a jingle on Cool FM). We eventually made it to the location only to sit and wait for a good hour and half before my hubby came on stage.

JOHN LEGEND LIVE AND DIRECT!!!!
As I am typing this and recalling my reaction I have a wide smile on my face. OMG!!! That boy was well created. Too cute!!! KAI!! Only John Legend can make a sweaty white t-shirt look so damn hot. As in if there were people around me when he came on stage, I didn’t want notice. Lol. A guy friend who was with me politely left so that I could engage myself in my fanaticism. I stood through out his performance, dancing, screaming and singing along the entire time. At one point I was like ‘na me be this…is this me?’ As in I was seriously grooving and slow dancing. I am sure people who watch STV news where like, is this the same ‘adaure’ that’s always like ‘good morning and welcome to stv am news.’ Believe it is the same, the one and only but high on some John Legend love man. I am like so speechless that I just cannot find the words to describe everything. I sha know that I underperformed as a John Legend fan because when he asked for a fan to come on stage, I should have ‘flewed’ over there. The past-past tense tells you clearly what I mean. I was seriously hating when that chick in the hat was there before we could say ‘john bull’. I am sure if I had boned and paid that 50k John would have seen me and ‘asked me’ to come on stage. Anyways it’s ok. As the women in Nigeria tend to say, he can run around, but ‘he’ll come back to me, he’ll come back to meeeee’. Anyways I shall stop here because I am grinning a bit too much that people are beginning to ask me why I have a smile on my face.

EVERYBODY ELSE
Now Rihanna almost put me to sleep but her brightness was blinding. I am not a fan but she was not lacking of those because all the small children and the men in the crowd were really feeling her. Now since everyone says I look like her, I was ready to stand in for her as ‘Rihanatu’. Can you guys believe there’s a song in Nigeria called ‘Ebute Metta’ that’s a parody of ‘Umbrella’. Nigerians are a trip. Even Big Lo has a ‘This is Why I am Hot’ parody called ‘This is Naija’. D’banj came on stage afterwards after another long wait to set up. Why they did not go ahead and build a second stage on the right is beyond me because the hall is begging for one, especially with an event like this. D’banj is BLOODY man. As in I have seen his performance like 4 times and the end is usually the same Tiv and Efik dancers but the dude always BURRRINGS it. No matter how many times you see him; there is always a freshness about his performances that always makes the stage and hall come alive. Everything including the chairs begins to dance. It’s amazing. Anyways after him Kelly Rowland and her dancers came on with an interestingly shiny outfit that I studied very well so that I could get my tailor to make. Lol. Kelly’s little bit was nice, and just as Ayoola said we were all skeptical about her being able to ‘perform’ especially after Beyonce already marveled Nigerians. Well she tried though and we were all grooving until she was missing from the ‘diva-strut’ line up. As in she straight up DUROPPED like a rag doll. We were all dazed for a moment and then we thought it was part of the act, may be a new song or something. But when they tapped her a couple of times and the babe no send, the dancers became all hysterical and dramatic. Security and all sorts came on stage. I am not sure if there was a doctor amongst them because it got really crowded. You would think they would want to give her some air or pour water on her or something. But no that didn’t happen. Instead they were there for a good 20 minutes. Unacceptable. The response and damage control should have been faster than that. Next time they need to have a stretcher and paramedics stage right or something. Anyways what ever was wrong with her, I am sure I didn’t pass the fact that perhaps she didn’t EAT. Yes doing all that power and might dancing in the Nigerian heat with just a Salad or something silly like that for lunch will make you faint. If Kelly Rowland had gotten the Naija treatment with a solid bowl of eba or fufu topped with Ogbono or Egusi soup, I think we’ld have been begging her to get off stage. Anyways Sasha came up next. I was upset for her because she is actually good on stage but how do you hype the crowd right after a guest in your country nearly dies because of the heat (come to think of it where were all the fans and ac’s. All that money and no investment in climate control?). I loved Sasha’s red coat. Very Jackie O. Now was it just me who thought that the guy in the dashiki and the fila with the big stomach who waddled across stage was part of Sasha’s performance. You know she was drumming and all (by the way that was tight) and I thought the guy was like a drum handler. Then she had the military thing and I was like perhaps she is trying to spoof politicians. But it turned out the guy was coming to announce that Kelly was ok. Now how rude was that. He was actually hurrying Sasha of the stage and signaling to her to round off her segment so he could waddle on and give his announcement. Whoever that dude was, and I imagine he’s one of the major organizers, WACK AND DISRESPECTFUL!! Waiting one minute to make the announcement would not have stopped the show, after all folks had been waiting in there for hours.
Before I continue, can I talk about the fact that people were straight up grocery shopping and bringing in the bags to the venue? Lol. The food/small chops was gone by like six pm and peeps were hungry. I had to send my driver out to Chicken Republic to buy ‘Fries and Chicken’ why did he come back an hour after telling me they didn’t have ‘fried rice’ so he bought ‘jollof rice’. I guess that was my mistake, I should have said ‘chips’. I also ran into Jewish dude number 2. Anyways I have lost track of the order but I think the mood was just dampened and I wanted to leave. They were setting up some turntables but when I saw a rather skinny DJ I was like it must be Mode 9. I can see those guys perform another time but I really needed some sleep so I can be at work in the morning at 5.30am. How about as I walked out of the entrance into the parking area, I just heard people screaming and the MC going, ‘straight from NYC ...P.DIDDY’. Whoa!! I ran back to my seat sharp sharp. Man I tell you Nigerians can rock and Addy can rock even harder. In fact my new name is ‘Rockette’. The whole place went wild and crazy. Diddy started by warming the crowd up with some Bob Marley hits. Then he went into his hard core rap. Then his hits. He then got some folks on stage. That little boy and his sister were absolutely adorable. The boy was like ‘my name is … and I’m from NIGERIA’ in the loudest and crunkest manner. Diddy was like ‘Ok men, I hear ya’. Then he asked the crown to bend down and play a game with him. He even called us out and was like ‘I know y’all like to feel act all cool around here’. LOL. I guess somebody gisted him. So everybody went low and then all of a sudden the speakers start blaring, ‘DON’T THIS SHIT MAKE MY NIGGAS WANNA JUMP JUMP!!!!” AWWWW NO HE DIDN’T!!! Every thing started jumping, both young and old. It was too crunk. Let me not even go into talking about his tribute to 2PAC with ‘CALIFORNIA’ and the one to BIGGIE with ‘Missing You’. He started with getting us all sad talking about losing a loved one and dedicating the song to them. So naturally when the hit song came on everyone was singing along. It was too dope. Puff never disappoints even with just himself, the dj and the mic. He’s just too bad. Anyways I left after him because it was like 1am already and I had lost my voice. I had tried at 9pm to get a coworker to fill in for me but no luck. I only had two hours of sleep and it was obvious because I sounded like a frog on the morning news. I heard Neyo rocked but I have seen him perform before and so I didn’t need to stay. Oddly enough there was a guy called Kolade or Gbolade who was sitting infront of us. He looks so much like Neyo. I had to take a picture with him a la celebrity look alike Nneyochukwu and Rihanatu. Lol


This Day TRY sha, I have to give them a few HANDS. Despite the ‘issues’ t was well worth my 15k o. I don’t know if it would have been worth the 50k if I had paid for both shows. Infact I would have been mad and forced my way to the EXTRA-VIP section and requested a bottle of champagne. Na wetin. At this point yeah, I just think This Day should just give up, I mean they have brought all the bringables and I don’t know if they can top it. Well unless if the next act is Michael Jackson. I have heard rumors about that one and I swear that’s how the rumor of John Legend coming to Nigeria started. So please This Day if you are planning to bring Wacko Jacko, please upgrade security and air conditioning and alert the Nigerian Military to take over security at the event and police the state because I imagine the rate of robberies will go up because no amount of 25-50k ticket will stop die hard MJ fans from seeing him live and direct. So does anybody know whose next so that I can start saving N100 per day so that I won’t bitch about the ticket cost.
Well I didn’t take any pictures because my camera which I just bought last June fell and BROKE. Yes indeed, so Addy has to put that back on the wish list (Oh by the way did I tell you I got my MAC G4, thanks to some corporate goodwill). So now I have to find another camera. But you can trust our Bella never to disappoint. She has the pictures from the concert HERE.
You can also see more pictures, all 105 of them on WireImage.
I am about to make JL’s pics my screen saver. Anyways TIX for an evening with D’banj are still up. I will randomly select and announce winners onWednesday the 25th of JULY. So indicate interest in the comment section HERE.

Other Blog Gist from This Day Concert
Taureanminx
Ayoola In Lagos
Mona

I also did the BLOG SEARCH for all of you so have a field time reading through all the gist

Oh and this caption on a picture from Mediatakeout.com is too funny. Since when did Fash become 'Mayor'? I thought he was a 'Governor'. Big difference people.