Gospel sensation Chungu causes stir on social media over Ne-Yo’s remark

Gospel sensation, Abel Chungu, has caused a stir on social media by claiming that he would pull off a showstopping performance if he received the same booking fee as American singer Ne-Yo.

Chungu took to his official Facebook handle to tell Zambians to stop making comparisons between Ne-Yo and local acts.

This followed Ne-Yo’s show stealing performance at the Stanbic Music Festival held over the weekend where many revellers have praised the American for an extremely impressive show.

Chungu, however, argued in a since deleted post that if he got a booking fee of between 150 thousand dollars and 299 thousand dollars just like Ne-Yo does, he would outperform everybody.

“Ne-yo’s booking fee is between $150,000 to $299,000. If you paid me that much, trust me I’ll out sing, out dance & out smile everyone I share the stage with. I’ll even take pics with your c@t.🙀 😅
So stop with the comparisons. 🚫”

This caused an uproar among netizens with one social media calling out the singer by sarcastically referring to Chungu’s controversial 2019 Most Outstanding Comedian prize at the Ngoma Awards.
“Lame excuse Mr 2019 Best Comedian of the year,” the Facebooker wrote.

Another social media user wrote: “I thought his rewards are in heaven…”

As if the roasting was not enough, socialite Lillian Mutambo added salt to the injury.

“A gospel artiste that always dives in Secular matters lol 😆 the performance for your artiste was rubbish. Neyo shamed them.”

Chungu later went live on his social media to clarify the remarks in a 1 hour 13 minute long video where fellow gospel singer Ephraim joined the video.

Chungu bemoaned the negative energy that Zambian fans have and also lamented that the Zambian music industry does not get enough sponsorship from corporates.

The artiste also said performances were based on the amount of money the promoters book the local musicians for.

He gave an example that if the money is less, it may be difficult to hire choreographers and a live band.

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