Claim: Wizkid provided a free bus to gather “random people on the streets of London” for his concert at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium because he could not sell out his tickets.
Verdict: False! The image used to depict the “free bus” was obtained from a website and edited.
Full Text
On July 29, 2023, Wizkid, the Nigerian music star, organised a concert at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London, United Kingdom. The development makes him the first and only African artiste in history to headline and perform at the venue.
The musician, whose real name is Ayodeji Balogun, dazzled the audience at the event with performances of his hit songs.
Following the concert, many fans of the singer took to social media to commend his historic feat. Other random social media users joined the conversation by pushing different narratives around the concert.
A Facebook user, Emmy Starr, alleged that Wizkid had used a bus to pack “random people on the streets of London” for the concert because he could not sell out his tickets.
The now-viral post has garnered 5,600 likes, 992 likes and 51 shares.
The virality of this post and the personality involved made DUBAWA investigate the claim.
Verification
We went through the X (Twitter) page of Wizkid and saw a picture taken during the concert, with people putting on their flashlights all over the stadium. We also found video evidence on YouTube showing the show sold out.
Using Google Lens, we found the exact picture, though clean -without Wizkid’s brand on it- in a blog post by Rambling Mom unrelated to Wizkid’s concert.
In this 2018 article, the image was used to tell how spouses of military officers in the US cope with their loved one’s absence.
The picture was taken and then edited with the picture of the musician to make it look customised.
Conclusion
After proper investigation, we found that the photo used to depict Wizkid’s alleged free bus was taken from a blog post and edited using the picture of the singer. Pictures and videos online also showed that the concert was sold out and packed – contrary to the claim by the Facebook user.
