South African singer Tyla has removed Lagos from her APOP World Tour, days after Nigerians called for a boycott of her planned Lagos concert.
The Lagos date, listed for December 22, has disappeared from the tour’s official website. The change was confirmed on Friday.
Lagos had been the only Nigerian date on the tour when it was first announced. The plan drew criticism soon after, following reports of renewed xenophobic attacks on Nigerians living in South Africa, including the death of a Nigerian national, Chika Ibe, in Cape Town.
Calls for a boycott spread on social media, with many Nigerians arguing that no South African artist should perform in Nigeria while the attacks continued. Others said musicians should not be blamed for political matters between the two countries.
The dispute grew intense on Thursday when activist Martins Otse, known as VeryDarkMan, said his group, the Ratel Movement, would act to stop the concert. He wrote online that Nigerians would not stay silent while other Africans were harmed.
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Not all reactions supported the boycott. African Action Congress presidential candidate Omoyele Sowore rejected the calls, saying Tyla should not be held responsible for the actions of others and that her Lagos show should proceed.
Separately, Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan raised a related concern this week. She asked the Nigeria Immigration Service and the federal government to review visa applications from South African artists, after reports that Nigerian singer Ayra Starr and her team were denied entry into South Africa, leading to the cancellation of her engagements there. Akpoti-Uduaghan said Nigeria should apply reciprocal measures until Nigerians receive fair treatment, and stated her comments were not directed at Tyla.
As of Friday, neither Tyla nor her management had issued a public statement explaining the removal of the Lagos date. Concert promoters had not announced a formal cancellation or postponement.
Reaction on X was swift once the update was noticed. Commentator Daniel Regha argued that Tyla had chosen silence over engagement, writing that she “canceled her Lagos concert rather than taking her platform to address the xenophobic crisis.”
Media personality Mazi Tundeednut, quoted in a widely shared post, said Tyla had removed Nigeria from the tour “without any explanation” and added that the boycott was “not really about Tyla as a person.”
A user posting as OurFaveOnlineDoc was harsher, calling the artists who still wanted to see the show “compromised” and arguing that if Nigerians cannot work in South Africa without facing violence, South African performers should not “come to other people’s country to make money.”
The rest of Tyla’s schedule, including stops in Europe, North America and South Africa, remains unchanged. Tyla’s tour still closes with shows in Cape Town on January 4 and Johannesburg on January 9.
