Back in 2000, Koffi Olomidé became the first African artist to perform at Bercy. Despite receiving any help from promotion from the French media. Koffi Olomidé would after the show seeing all French tv-channels talking about his event and being invited by different tv-shows.





from 31:45 min on France 2

Koffi’s success made, the press of Ivory Coast and Senegal question their legends Youssou Ndour and Alpha Blondy, why after receiving gold and platina records, nominations at the Grammy Awards and mainstream hits, them never have done Bercy and pressure them to do so. Alpha Blondy would end up by performing at Bercy on October 18th and Youssou N’dour in November the same year.



Then years later in many interviews that JB did in the mid-2000s, when being asked about why Congolese artists are always poor despite doing shows at Zenith and Bercy, JB Mpiana would say that they receive basically nothing/peanuts when performing there comparing their Bercy’s with that of Youssou Ndour and Alpha Blondy, saying they have big sponsors for their shows and huge promotion of the French press because of being signed with majors. But at the same time he would say that those associated to the show were losing their money. So it made me wonder if the shows of Youssou N’dour and Alpha Blondy were sold out. Also if that is not the case, how would Youssou N’dour then being able to perform almost every year at Bercy since 2000 ? Because compared to Congolese artists that performed at Bercy between 2000-2002, no one returned back. There plans for Koffi in 2004-05, 2008 and 2010, but it never happened. Or is it that Youssou has like Congolese artists has massive support from his community, which is the biggest african community in France after that of Maroc, Algeria and Tunesia, which makes him being able to do that ?
Another question is when Youssou and Alpha performed at Bercy was it in full capacity, the 8k configuration what all Congolese artists used to do at that time or 12k configuration ?

Back in 2000, Koffi Olomidé became the first African artist to perform at Bercy. Despite receiving any help from promotion from the French media. Koffi Olomidé would after the show seeing all French tv-channels talking about his event and being invited by different tv-shows.





from 31:45 min on France 2

Koffi’s success made, the press of Ivory Coast and Senegal question their legends Youssou Ndour and Alpha Blondy, why after receiving gold and platina records, nominations at the Grammy Awards and mainstream hits, them never have done Bercy and pressure them to do so. Alpha Blondy would end up by performing at Bercy on October 18th and Youssou N’dour in November the same year.



Then years later in many interviews that JB did in the mid-2000s, when being asked about why Congolese artists are always poor despite doing shows at Zenith and Bercy, JB Mpiana would say that they receive basically nothing/peanuts when performing there comparing their Bercy’s with that of Youssou Ndour and Alpha Blondy, saying they have big sponsors for their shows and huge promotion of the French press because of being signed with majors. But at the same time he would say that those associated to the show were losing their money. So it made me wonder if the shows of Youssou N’dour and Alpha Blondy were sold out. Also if that is not the case, how would Youssou N’dour then being able to perform almost every year at Bercy since 2000 ? Because compared to Congolese artists that performed at Bercy between 2000-2002, no one returned back. There plans for Koffi in 2004-05, 2008 and 2010, but it never happened. Or is it that Youssou has like Congolese artists has massive support from his community, which is the biggest african community in France after that of Maroc, Algeria and Tunesia, which makes him being able to do that ?
Another question is when Youssou and Alpha performed at Bercy was it in full capacity, the 8k configuration what all Congolese artists used to do at that time or 12k configuration ?