Mark Kwesi Arthur, professionally called DJ Azonto, has claimed Shatta Wale is not being honest about how much was spent on him by the organisers of the Taabea Ghana Music Awards 2023.
The GMA-UK 2023 took place on Saturday, October 7, at the Royal Regency, London, a night to celebrate Ghanaian music and honour Ghanaian music acts.
DJ Azonto spoke to Akua Sonto, sit-in host for Accra 100.5 FM’s Ayekoo Ayekoo midmorning programme, Thursday, October 19.
He took on entertainment journalist Akwasi Aboagye for challenging Shatta Wale about how much he was paid to perform at the GMA-UK 2023.
He stressed he did not see Akwasi Aboagye in London during the event, and even wondered: “Has Akwasi Aboagye gone to London before?”
“Kwasi Aboagye is a renowned presenter and I expect him to know more [about] this. I expect him to come out with facts because I don’t know his facts,” the Hiplife performer charged.
DJ Azonto said, he while in London, “I met Shatta Wale at his hotel. I was there with him and every minute, the bell would ring and he would be asked: ‘Are you going to eat here?’”
He added that a member of the organising team, Alordia “was nice to us. He picked me up with a Tesla. That was my first time”.
In fact, Azonto said, “Shatta Wale lied. He was not given 80,000.
“I got 60,000 altogether – Shatta didn’t calculate some other things. If Shatta calculates the services, extra food [and others] which was not in our contract, I think it’d be somewhere over GBP200,000.”
He said he was “disappointed when Shatta Wale quoted 80,000,” reasoning: “Maybe that was the performance fee.”
DJ Azonto talked about how expensive his performance outfit was for the awards night.
“GBP15,000 for my heels, Zara. And there was my bra, my panties, my pampers [diapers],” he said.
Putting all that together, “I think it was over GBP60,000 – approximately,” the Fa No Fom hitmaker added.
He commended event organiser Alordia “for the type of treatment” he gave the musicians who were billed for the GMA-UK 2023.
Azonto said Shatta Wale, the headline act and the Artiste of the Year, “is not being fair to Alordia” and “should add some things up”.
The winner of the Most Popular Song of the Year, he concluded by arguing “all the people” who do not believe Shatta Wale was paid that much “are poor”.
“Poor people think differently,” he said, insinuating successful businesspeople do not have the time for such conversations and gossip.