Singer, Yemi Alade, has responded after it emerged she was denied a Canadian visa over fears ‘she won’t leave the country’ after her performance at the Festival International Nuits d’Afrique.
The 33-year-old found the funny side of the controversy by changing the location of her latest Instagram post as ‘The Canadian Border.’
The caption of the post was the French translation of ‘King of Queens’ which is the title of her debut album.
‘Les Roi des Reines,’ she wrote.
Yemi was scheduled to headline the Festival International Nuits d’Afrique but has now been replaced at the festival by Sampa The Great, a Zambian-born Australia-based singer. This is according to reports released by Le Devoir, a French newspaper published and distributed in Canada. Suzanne Rousseau, the festival co-founder, said the visa denial was due to financial reasons and fears that the group wouldn’t leave Canada.
L’Finally, we got an answer saying the musicians were refused, saying they have to guarantee that they have enough financial means that will make them go back to their country,’ she said.
Yemi Alade has not publicly commented on the matter at the time of filing this report. She joins a growing list of Nigerian artistes who have had their plans to perform at shows outside the country thwarted by visa issues.
In 2018, Wizkid famously missed out on performing at Coachella after his band members were denied American visas. While in March 2019, Mr. Eazi was forced to postpone the US leg of his North American tour after the US embassy delayed his visa.
Some of Davido’s crew members were also unable to attend his sold-out ‘We Rise by Lifting Others’ show at the O2 Arena in February after being denied UK visas.
