- South African Grammy Award-winning music star Tyla has officially removed the scheduled Lagos leg from her highly anticipated APOP World Tour itinerary following growing public backlash across Nigeria.
- The planned December 22 concert sparked intense criticism and calls for a nationwide boycott on social media, fueled by outrage over recurring xenophobic attacks and hostile treatment directed at Nigerian citizens living in South Africa.
- While activist VeryDarkMan pledged to mobilize opposition against the performance and political figure Omoyele Sowore cautioned against penalizing artists for diplomatic conflicts, neither Tyla nor her tour promoters have released an official statement regarding the event’s removal.
In a direct response to mounting public criticism and widespread boycott campaigns across social media channels, South African Grammy-winning singer Tyla has quietly dropped Lagos from the official schedule of her upcoming APOP World Tour.
Eko Hot Blog reports that a review of the global music star’s official tour website confirmed that the Lagos concert, which was initially scheduled for December 22, has been completely removed from the published itinerary.
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The updated schedule retains all previously announced dates across major cities in Europe, North America, and South Africa, concluding with scheduled performances in Cape Town on January 4 and Johannesburg on January 9, but no longer lists any performance stop within Nigeria.
The quiet removal of the Lagos date comes after days of escalating debate across Nigerian social media spaces following Tyla’s announcement of the APOP World Tour, which originally featured Lagos as her sole West African destination.
The announcement quickly sparked fierce pushback from Nigerian music fans, cultural commentators, and online users who advocated for a boycott of the event.
The widespread outrage was triggered by renewed reports of systemic harassment, xenophobic violence, and extrajudicial deaths targeting Nigerian nationals resident in South Africa, including the tragic death of a Nigerian citizen, Chika Ibe, in Cape Town.
Many critics argued that hosting a high-profile South African artist in Nigeria during an ongoing period of anti-immigrant sentiment against foreign Africans in South Africa sends an insensitive message and overlooks the safety and dignity of Nigerians abroad.
Others pointed out the contrast in cultural hospitality, contending that while South African creative stars enjoy warm receptions and lucrative business opportunities in Nigeria, Nigerian citizens and public figures often face hostile visa restrictions and social discrimination in South Africa.
The opposition to the concert gained further traction when social media activist Martins Otse, popularly known as VeryDarkMan, publicly threatened to mobilize his followers under the Ratel Movement to prevent the event from taking place if promoters proceeded with the show.
In a strongly worded message directed at South Africans on his Facebook page, Otse declared that the concert would not happen in Nigeria, criticizing South African celebrities and promoters for remaining silent on the xenophobic attacks and extrajudicial killings involving non-nationals living in South Africa.
Conversely, some prominent figures voiced strong opposition to the calls for a boycott.
Human rights activist and 2027 presidential candidate of the African Action Congress, Omoyele Sowore, cautioned Nigerians against holding creative artists responsible for the actions of individuals or government policies.
Writing on his official X account, Sowore urged the public to direct their anger toward political leaders rather than artists, arguing that music and cultural exchanges should remain protected from diplomatic friction and that Tyla’s Lagos concert should be allowed to proceed.
Despite the contrasting opinions, the growing controversy appears to have created significant security and promotional hurdles for the event.
As of Friday morning, neither Tyla nor her international management team has issued a formal statement explaining the decision to remove the Lagos show from the tour itinerary, nor have event promoters officially announced whether the performance is permanently canceled or rescheduled for a future date.
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