British-Nigerian singer Darkoo says she won’t be returning to Toronto anytime soon after experiencing a “horror story” with event promoters, resulting in her no-show at a party in the city over the weekend.
On Saturday, Afrobeats singer Darkoo was expected to hit the stage at the National Event Venue in North York for STAGESTO, a birthday celebration put together by local event organizer and city advocate Ebenezer Oteng, who is also known as Emcee Ebone.
The performance would be the second of two appearances for the singer over the weekend, the first being Friday night in Ottawa which Darkoo did attend.
But things went south once the “Favourite Girl” singer failed to show up on Saturday, leaving attendees confused and frustrated. Some party-goers, such as a Toronto fan named Brittany, stayed until past 3 a.m.
“We just can’t have nice things,” she said in a video posted to TikTok.
Darkoo hopped on TikTok to explain her side of the story, referring to the whole mishap as a “horror story.”
She listed a number of inconsistencies before she even arrived on Canadian soil, such as her performance being promoted before her flight was officially booked by the promoter, and once it had been booked, her name was spelled incorrectly on the ticket, causing her to be unable to get on the flight.
She also claims that the flight was booked using a “buddy pass,” a standby plane ticket that can be used by family and friends in order to travel at a discounted rate.
At this point, Darkoo claims she was going to pull out of the appearances completely, but decided to push through anyway after some convincing from her mother. She ended up paying for her own business-class flight ticket, and once landed in Toronto, she learned that only one night of hotel fees was completely covered for her weekend-long stay.
The night of the show, she recalls the promoter going completely silent and not answering her calls regarding payment. She says after finally getting him on the phone, she would receive a portion of the funds for coming to the venue, and the rest off of the “back end” once she completed the performance.
“It don’t make sense to do the show,” Darkoo said. “I’m not getting paid.”
Later on, Darkoo said she was confronted in-person by the promoter. She says she felt as if he was trying to pressure her to refund him the money they had initially booked her with, allegedly surrounding her with some other people from his team.
“You’ve embarrassed me, let’s call it even. You didn’t even pay me the full amount,” she said.
Darkoo apologized to disappointed fans for the no-show as she was excited to be in Canada for the first time, but she said the circumstances were out of her control.
“Moral of the story, fact check the type of people that you’re working with,” she said.
Toronto residents seem unsurprised by the situation, with some saying an incident like this is on-par for failed performances in the city.
“This is why people don’t like coming to Toronto,” one person commented on Darkoo’s TikTok video.
“Toronto man, every time!!! I’m embarrassed,” Canadian singer LU KALA wrote.
“Toronto promoters are always goin to let us down,” another TikTok user said.
After pleas from fans to give the city another chance, Darkoo has since commented that she doesn’t see herself returning to the city anytime soon.
The organizers of STAGESTO released an apologetic statement on Monday.
“We are grateful Darkoo could perform in Ottawa, however, due to our circumstances at the time, she was unable to perform in Toronto. This left many people disappointed,” the statement read.
“We know how much everyone looked forward to this event, and we’re truly sorry for not delivering the experience promised. We take full responsibility for ensuring our events meet your expectations.”
STAGESTO says it will be processing ticket refunds to guests who request one before Nov. 8.
Now Toronto reached out to Emcee Ebone for comment but has not received a response as of publication.
