By HARBGUY MWAMBAZI –

IF a show’s success is gauged by the number of people who attend it, then Curtis Young’s charitable concert at Lusaka’s Smugglers Inn last week on Friday evening was a flop!
The show was poorly attended as the patrons who turned up to watch Dr Dre’s son live on stage were far less than the targeted 1,000. Only between 150 to 200 patrons showed up.
What is more surprising is that a show with an artiste of Curtis’ calibre recorded such a disappointing turnout when ticket prices were not even too high for patrons to fail to buy as they ranged from K50 to K200.
Not even a delay to kick off the show by the organisers could better the situation as the number of patrons in attendance still remained low at 22:00 hours when the first performance started.
The presence at the show of award-winning duo of Chef 187 and Willz ‘Toliwe’ let alone Zambia’s Big Brother Africa reality show representative Cleo, Uncle Rex and his band, Shyman Shaizo and J.O.B was expected to woo a lot of patrons but that did not do the trick.
The other setback was Zambia’s most celebrated rapper C.R.I.$.I.$
alias Mr Swagger, currently based in Australia who could not travel to come and perform at the show he extensively promoted on social media platforms.
Mr Swagger apologised days before the show on social media that he was not going to be available as he had another commitment elsewhere but asked his fans to support Curtis who was visiting Zambia for the first time.
Despite Uncle Rex and the band being available on the night, most artistes resorted to playbacks instead of live music.
However, the stage was well done and the sound output was good.
The low turnout however did not deter other artistes from giving their best performances.
Zambian exports to Australia consisting of songbird Portia Clark, DJ T Millz and Kamando left an indelible mark with their lively performances.
The moment everyone had been waiting for came in the wee hours of Saturday when Curtis stepped on stage, much to the excitement of the audience who had their phone cameras flashing.
Curtis, backed by Uncle Rex and the band, thanked the audience for opting to come and watch him and went on to perform some of his songs.
He also performed some of Dr Dre’s famous songs like Ain’t nuttin but a G thang and California Love (done by 2pac featuring Dr Dre).
Curtis summed up his performance at 02:00 hours by awarding a competition winner, Innocent Jere the Beats By Dre studio headphones from the company his father (Dr Dre) co-founded and sold to Apple at US $3.2 billion last year.
Had the show organiser Brendan Clark, a prominent Australian business executive (Portia’s husband), utilised platforms such as billboards, radio and television to promote the show say a month in advance, the turnout would have been much better.