Ghanaian Afro-Rock artiste Wiyaala has rescinded her initial decision of rejecting the Citation of Merit that was supposed to have been presented to her at the SummerStage Festival in New York on August 13, 2022.
She has accepted the citation from the office of the President of the Borough of Bronx, Vanessa L. Gibson.
The ‘Leno’ singer did not take the citation in person because she is currently in the United Kingdom.
In an exclusive chat with John Sherren, the manager of Wiyaala, he confirmed to ghanaweekend.com reports that reps from her management team received the citation in the office of the President of the Bronx Borough.
Wiyaala also expressed her appreciation to the Bronx Borough.
“I’m so happy to accept these words of encouragement from my family members in the The Bronx, New York. If they ever should want to hear the Lioness ROAR, I am there for them,” she told ghanaweekend.com.
This confirms an earlier report by nydjlive.com showing reps from Wiyaala’s team taking the citation in Vanessa’s office.
Wiyaala declined the honour on the day of the event after the organisers decided to do her presentation backstage.
Enraged by the act, she took to her social media platforms to register her displeasure, stating that she was too “big” to take an award backstage.
She considered the act as disrespectful and suspected, from information she gathered from her team, that Shatta Wale’s team could have been involved in preventing her from taking her citation on stage.
She vented her spleen on social media, requesting Shatta Wale and Vanessa L. Gibson to confirm or deny if Shatta’s team caused the gaffe.
Being the first person to perform at the SummerStage Festival, she expected that she would be the first to take her citation, before the next act, Shatta Wale.
But according to her, after her performance, she was asked to wait till the entire show was over; only to have been told later that she had to take her citation backstage.
Later, reports and her interaction with Shatta Wale proved that the hiccup was the fault of the organisers and not Shatta Wale’s team.
She then did a Facebook Live video to apologise to Shatta Wale.
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By: Kwame Dadzie | Ghana Weekend
