On New Year’s Eve Algerian singer Fula had headed to Lebanon to host a concert in celebration of the New Year. The concert which was to be held at the Commodore Hotel in Beirut was cancelled minutes before the singer stepped on stage.
According to the London based Elaph, a huge fight broke out between Fula and the sponsor when the latter had refused to pay the remaining wages of the singer. During the argument, the sponsor began to curse the singer saying he did not care whether she sang or not for he was not willing to pay the rest of her wages due to the fact that the concert ticket sales were too low not making any profit. He added that if Fula wants to sing it will be under his conditions as long as he does not pay one penny extra.
An eye witness had said that contrary to what the sponsor said about ticket sales being minimum, all seats were sold out and it was in fact a full house at the concert. At this moment Fula refused to go on stage saying she had come a long way in her singing career to go on stage for merely show. She had sung on some of the most prominent stages in the Arab and Western worlds and gained respect and popularity among audiences, and wasn’t willing to jeopardize all that for an incident such as this and risk her defamation all over the tabloids.
It is worth mentioning that a hotel official had told a caller inquiring about the reason behind the cancellation of the concert that the singer had experienced a sudden accident that prevented her from attending. When in fact eye witnesses had seen Fula arrive at the hotel and several pictures were taken.
The managing office for Fula had announced that a lawsuit will be filed against the sponsor demanding compensation be paid for damages caused. –Albawaba.com
