yesterday before the soon to be legendary match of liverpool and barca i was watching wazekwa's olympia concert along with two workmates from the comoros islands who happened to have been at the concert that day along with one of their congolese friends and became fans of wazekwa from that day and who i did not know then and it came to my mind that this concert was the only along with a little bit of ferre's first europe tour,where i was involved and did not come just like a random spectator,so it came to my mind that maybe i should share my experience of the whole processus which lead to that great show,obviously i dont know 100 per cent of everything which happened,but i thought why not share my story,if people are interested?

I can’t believe you’d ask such a question.... of course you should share!! Tell us everything my man

Yes ndeko na biso, we are interested for your involment in the organisation of wazekwa's olympia and ferre's europe tour

I always look forward to you sharing the inside stories/scoops of our music.

So you helped set up Wazekwa's Olympia? I'm looking forward to hearing this story.

Calm down guys! archos is waiting for my clearance. Now go ahead ndeko, where are you? we are humbly waiting.

Thanks guys for your comments,i am on it,still not undecided whether to split it in two parts or the whole thing but i will upload it in the coming days for sure

Yes, that would be nice.

 What I want to know is about the money the artist receive during those events. How much money do they receive when they perform at Zenith, Olympia or Bercy and if the same money if they perform in London, Brussels, Lyon, Laussane or Berlin. Do they get paid before or after the big event. In interviews Wazekwa often said that he rent Olympia by himself. How did he arrange that ? Did rent the money from bank and how much must you pay to perform at Olympia & Zenith ?

To understand the story of felix wazekwa's olympia on easter 2009,we have to go back 4 or 5 years before
in fact,in 2004 when cultura has already made huge progress towards cementing its position as a top group of DRC,and is enjoying third consecutive album success,the main musicians of the group especially the chef joss diena "tony blair" and the main atalaku gessac tshipoyi start putting a lot of pressure on their leader to go for bigger concert halls as they had been playing for years in small halls and performing playbacks and as they were seeing it as something vital in order to compete with fellow stars of other groups like alain mpela,fally ipupa,ferre chair de poule to name a few
but unfortunately for them,their leader felix wazekwa feels its still too early because for him becoming famous is one thing but its does not guarantee yet that you have cement a strong enough fanbase ready to follow you everywhere
and he tries to convince joss and gessac to remain in europe to try to get papers so that outside of cultura's tours,they could come with him to do further playbacks in order to make sure cultura's music is promoted better with the long term target of being able to fill bigger halls
gessac goes back to DRC after a month as he is afraid of coping with language and europe's habits on daily life while joss ends up being deported
by the end of 2006,wazekwa starts to feel ready for the challenge as he starts getting a lot of calls from fans and sees that people are now having a different perception of cultura,as a fully established group which only lacks big events to confirm their new status
in early 2007,while wazekwa is programming in europe what would have been his final proper solo album he is made aware of musicians getting intense approach from rival groups and moaning about the fact they were not getting songs to compete with other groups and even three of their rivals alain mpela,ferre and fally have gone solo,wazekwa calls them to tell them to start recording but if by the end of the month they have not finished he'll cancel that and finish his album because he is upset with some words in which the musicians moaned
 when he comes back he is under big pressure again from fans and musicians to go for a bigger hall and starts announcing a olympia concert as he is ready to accept an offer,and then finish group album on that tour,but he gets visas rejected for mysterious reasons and returns on his own to europe being a french citizen
tensions grow within cultura,as musicians are upset of missing the tour having shared their stuff knowing they'll get gifts in europe and what they say is reported to wazekwa in europe and he threatens not to fund sessions anymore if they do not understand its not his fault is visas got rejected since everybody on the list had gone in europe already except nono chaka so they did not miss visas because of too much new faces
then as wazekwa falls out again with koffi olomide and also with cafe etienne tshimanga his friend and manager and advisor,cafe will accept being part of a revenge plan of koffi to destroy cultura by taking every of the big guns and like we know joss diena,julien gabbana,hono kapanga gps and dancer breveté lukima plus a couple of bodyguards will join quartier latin
 and in order to appease tensions in the group in order not to lose other musicians wazekwa decides to combine his album with group albums with more musicians getting songs and the result of the new version of que demande le peuple is a tremendous success,while people thought it was over for wazekwa with the loss of pretty much the backbone of his group he bounces back exceptionally well and demand for bigger halls increases
in 2008 he will announce olympia concert for 2008 but gets visas rejected again,and later applies again for a festival in a small city in france and gets 20 visas and finds it suspect that he misses visas for olympia but not for small festivals and decides not to go and writes an open letter to french authorities but he is adamant he will perform at olympia soon and starts preparing the show slowly but surely
in the meantime he gets answered by some producers that they cant produce his show because they are afraid of losing other artists who dont get along with him and who are against it,which infuriates him and he decides to prove them a point saying that he'll produce concert himself no matter how much money it will take he even says to people around that he is really to sell some of his houses if needed(he had 9 then)
boosted by the support of famous people of his area of matete and demand and encourageing messages of fans,he decides to approach olympia owners himself to ask how much it will cost to rent the hall for a night,and they inform him that it would be around 35000 euros plus some extra fees like security,restaurant and will ask for 250 tickets for special guests and olympia direction will tell him its too much because they earn 30 per cent of every ticket sold so they can give him 50 maximum... and he'll with no hesitation pay the 35000 from his own pocket
and back in kinshasa he tries to see how he can sort the visas issues and contacts some of his friends who are musicians and politicians,and things will take a big step forward when backed by jb mpiana and werrason,he gets access to the biggest authorities of the country except the president himself
he will cancel cultura concerts and a planned first proper african tour to focus on preparing the show not that he sees things could turn around
so he will take the group in his last house of then slightly outside of kinshasa,and will with help of us his staff of then install female dancers at a hotel so that they dont live with men,and be exposed eventually to their desires,and make sure we take them from hotel to his house and then back to hotel in total safety,make sure they eat and lack nothing
and they will prepare for Exactly 29 days in a row the show and the group will get 10 visas which he does not obviously see as good enough, having in the group which prepared the show 6 guitarists,2 drummers,two mbonda players and several singers and atalakus
so he will go with jb mpiana to see ambassador of france and will end up having 23 visas having applied for 30,and 18 of the plane tickets will be funded by the prime minister of then who is a big fan of wazekwa's personality and music but wazekwa does not want to let down the 7 others who prepared the show with them
also on artistic field wazekwa gets his friend jules kibens to get advice and try to replicate the sound configuration of wenge bcbg's zenith
few days before concert,wazekwa struggles to find available plane seats for the group but luckily for him the group will arrive three days before the show,while still trying to get visas for those who remained like suzuki's brother carcini luzubu,francis bokeli and co
but once in europe the group has to face pressure from combattants who are strongly against concert which will lead to a very heated exchange which almost ends in a fight between combattants and wazekwa who gets supported by the famous sportsmen from matete who live in europe(jean paul engambe and co ) and also of course rival artists pulling the strings behind the scenes to do everything to trouble the concert
the day of concert,out of nowhere people start seeing posters similar to the concert poster but with the mention that concert is cancelled and people in metro stations spreading flyers saying that concert is cancelled,that it was just a fake news for buzz and that wazekwa is not at the level of filling olympia and things like that
and prior to that the day before musicians and dancers started to see strange things at their hotels,like dozens of ants,bats appearing in their room which will scare them and when wazekwa is informed he'll join them at hotel and we'll gather in the house of an influent cultura staff member to pray for hours
and the day of concert,we arrive at olympia in the morning and those who did not rest enough in the night sleep again
few hours before concert there is lunch and after that we take musicians on a little tour in paris to relieve a bit of pressure and meet mabanga customers before the concert then around 10 of the night when final soundcheck is completed musicians go back to start to wear concert clothes
while they were dressing dancer mboyo londo spots a strange pot hidden somewhere in locker room with bizarre plants in it and screams which alerts people and wazekwa leaves his private locker to join us and when he sees it he angrily kicks it with the foot  and starts feeling heavy legs shortly after but he dressed and when saluting every single person from the group and us and making the last prayer before musicians and instrumentists make their entrance he looks at them with a serious face and says even we collapse on stage with those attacks we are getting we should just give everything,like it or not we will perform tonight and he individually touches every of them on the forehead and says "in God we trust forever"
the group will then step on stage for exactly 1H32 minutes before he is introduced by the journalists he brought from kinshasa for the event,mamie ilela and patrick mboyo
and the rest is history,felix wazekwa steps on stage  to give a memorable show,with great sound,great clothes,great choreographies,crowd connexion,every ingredient of a big show are there
the day after,its a tired but proud felix wazekwa who watches videos of people already naming him the african michael jackson and the same day he will watch wih us on tv late babia ndonga on tv with the same golden outfit and dissing him for his boss which will make him laugh and say "some people will never change"

Thank you so much ndeko for this story. About Wazekwa, I dont know what to say. He is a real leader and a good person with a great heart...

To understand the story of felix wazekwa's olympia on easter 2009,we have to go back 4 or 5 years before
in fact,in 2004 when cultura has already made huge progress towards cementing its position as a top group of DRC,and is enjoying third consecutive album success,the main musicians of the group especially the chef joss diena "tony blair" and the main atalaku gessac tshipoyi start putting a lot of pressure on their leader to go for bigger concert halls as they had been playing for years in small halls and performing playbacks and as they were seeing it as something vital in order to compete with fellow stars of other groups like alain mpela,fally ipupa,ferre chair de poule to name a few
but unfortunately for them,their leader felix wazekwa feels its still too early because for him becoming famous is one thing but its does not guarantee yet that you have cement a strong enough fanbase ready to follow you everywhere
and he tries to convince joss and gessac to remain in europe to try to get papers so that outside of cultura's tours,they could come with him to do further playbacks in order to make sure cultura's music is promoted better with the long term target of being able to fill bigger halls
gessac goes back to DRC after a month as he is afraid of coping with language and europe's habits on daily life while joss ends up being deported
by the end of 2006,wazekwa starts to feel ready for the challenge as he starts getting a lot of calls from fans and sees that people are now having a different perception of cultura,as a fully established group which only lacks big events to confirm their new status
in early 2007,while wazekwa is programming in europe what would have been his final proper solo album he is made aware of musicians getting intense approach from rival groups and moaning about the fact they were not getting songs to compete with other groups and even three of their rivals alain mpela,ferre and fally have gone solo,wazekwa calls them to tell them to start recording but if by the end of the month they have not finished he'll cancel that and finish his album because he is upset with some words in which the musicians moaned
 when he comes back he is under big pressure again from fans and musicians to go for a bigger hall and starts announcing a olympia concert as he is ready to accept an offer,and then finish group album on that tour,but he gets visas rejected for mysterious reasons and returns on his own to europe being a french citizen
tensions grow within cultura,as musicians are upset of missing the tour having shared their stuff knowing they'll get gifts in europe and what they say is reported to wazekwa in europe and he threatens not to fund sessions anymore if they do not understand its not his fault is visas got rejected since everybody on the list had gone in europe already except nono chaka so they did not miss visas because of too much new faces
then as wazekwa falls out again with koffi olomide and also with cafe etienne tshimanga his friend and manager and advisor,cafe will accept being part of a revenge plan of koffi to destroy cultura by taking every of the big guns and like we know joss diena,julien gabbana,hono kapanga gps and dancer breveté lukima plus a couple of bodyguards will join quartier latin
 and in order to appease tensions in the group in order not to lose other musicians wazekwa decides to combine his album with group albums with more musicians getting songs and the result of the new version of que demande le peuple is a tremendous success,while people thought it was over for wazekwa with the loss of pretty much the backbone of his group he bounces back exceptionally well and demand for bigger halls increases
in 2008 he will announce olympia concert for 2008 but gets visas rejected again,and later applies again for a festival in a small city in france and gets 20 visas and finds it suspect that he misses visas for olympia but not for small festivals and decides not to go and writes an open letter to french authorities but he is adamant he will perform at olympia soon and starts preparing the show slowly but surely
in the meantime he gets answered by some producers that they cant produce his show because they are afraid of losing other artists who dont get along with him and who are against it,which infuriates him and he decides to prove them a point saying that he'll produce concert himself no matter how much money it will take he even says to people around that he is really to sell some of his houses if needed(he had 9 then)
boosted by the support of famous people of his area of matete and demand and encourageing messages of fans,he decides to approach olympia owners himself to ask how much it will cost to rent the hall for a night,and they inform him that it would be around 35000 euros plus some extra fees like security,restaurant and will ask for 250 tickets for special guests and olympia direction will tell him its too much because they earn 30 per cent of every ticket sold so they can give him 50 maximum... and he'll with no hesitation pay the 35000 from his own pocket
and back in kinshasa he tries to see how he can sort the visas issues and contacts some of his friends who are musicians and politicians,and things will take a big step forward when backed by jb mpiana and werrason,he gets access to the biggest authorities of the country except the president himself
he will cancel cultura concerts and a planned first proper african tour to focus on preparing the show not that he sees things could turn around
so he will take the group in his last house of then slightly outside of kinshasa,and will with help of us his staff of then install female dancers at a hotel so that they dont live with men,and be exposed eventually to their desires,and make sure we take them from hotel to his house and then back to hotel in total safety,make sure they eat and lack nothing
and they will prepare for Exactly 29 days in a row the show and the group will get 10 visas which he does not obviously see as good enough, having in the group which prepared the show 6 guitarists,2 drummers,two mbonda players and several singers and atalakus
so he will go with jb mpiana to see ambassador of france and will end up having 23 visas having applied for 30,and 18 of the plane tickets will be funded by the prime minister of then who is a big fan of wazekwa's personality and music but wazekwa does not want to let down the 7 others who prepared the show with them
also on artistic field wazekwa gets his friend jules kibens to get advice and try to replicate the sound configuration of wenge bcbg's zenith
few days before concert,wazekwa struggles to find available plane seats for the group but luckily for him the group will arrive three days before the show,while still trying to get visas for those who remained like suzuki's brother carcini luzubu,francis bokeli and co
but once in europe the group has to face pressure from combattants who are strongly against concert which will lead to a very heated exchange which almost ends in a fight between combattants and wazekwa who gets supported by the famous sportsmen from matete who live in europe(jean paul engambe and co ) and also of course rival artists pulling the strings behind the scenes to do everything to trouble the concert
the day of concert,out of nowhere people start seeing posters similar to the concert poster but with the mention that concert is cancelled and people in metro stations spreading flyers saying that concert is cancelled,that it was just a fake news for buzz and that wazekwa is not at the level of filling olympia and things like that
and prior to that the day before musicians and dancers started to see strange things at their hotels,like dozens of ants,bats appearing in their room which will scare them and when wazekwa is informed he'll join them at hotel and we'll gather in the house of an influent cultura staff member to pray for hours
and the day of concert,we arrive at olympia in the morning and those who did not rest enough in the night sleep again
few hours before concert there is lunch and after that we take musicians on a little tour in paris to relieve a bit of pressure and meet mabanga customers before the concert then around 10 of the night when final soundcheck is completed musicians go back to start to wear concert clothes
while they were dressing dancer mboyo londo spots a strange pot hidden somewhere in locker room with bizarre plants in it and screams which alerts people and wazekwa leaves his private locker to join us and when he sees it he angrily kicks it with the foot  and starts feeling heavy legs shortly after but he dressed and when saluting every single person from the group and us and making the last prayer before musicians and instrumentists make their entrance he looks at them with a serious face and says even we collapse on stage with those attacks we are getting we should just give everything,like it or not we will perform tonight and he individually touches every of them on the forehead and says "in God we trust forever"
the group will then step on stage for exactly 1H32 minutes before he is introduced by the journalists he brought from kinshasa for the event,mamie ilela and patrick mboyo
and the rest is history,felix wazekwa steps on stage  to give a memorable show,with great sound,great clothes,great choreographies,crowd connexion,every ingredient of a big show are there
the day after,its a tired but proud felix wazekwa who watches videos of people already naming him the african michael jackson and the same day he will watch wih us on tv late babia ndonga on tv with the same golden outfit and dissing him for his boss which will make him laugh and say "some people will never change"

I think that Koffi-fans would stop attacking Wazekwa on youtube and facebook if they knew what was going on behind the scenes. No wonder that Wazekwa has still alot of hate against Koffi Olomide.

Wazekwa's show was voted as best show of 2009 and the dvd being one of the most sold of 2009. His show at Olympia made people respect Wazekwa more, because before that he also very succesful but people were still doubting about him because he hadn't played at Olympia or Zenith. I remember Wazekwa being so pride about his show of Olympia, saying in an interview with Papy Mboma that nobody is better than him in giving shows. Wazekwa would been on a higher level if is show at Zenith wasn't a failure. It was like he had to start his career all over again, the same people who praised him for his Olympia-show mocking him on skyrock and youtube. Babia & Koffi dissing him and Wazekwa becoming sick and not returning to Kinshasa for months.

Those combattans were giving Congolese artists a hard time in 2008 and 2009. Werrason's Zenith of 2008 and Koffi's Zenith got also most cancelled. I'm sure that concert-ban wouldn't have started in 2011 if Fally Ipupa and Ferre Gola received visa's for their double Olympia vs Zenith fara-fara.

yeah his decision to perform with the makeshift band of kerosene,mogratana and co did to prove to french authorities  that he will perform even  they are giving him a hard time for visas did him bad service,cultura hoped for visa till the day of concert  and the guys were not to far from creating havoc at embassy since they were not getting visas,it took a good hour for eclipse to calm them down some were so furious that they almost had accidents while driving back home
then fally and ferre were next to have the visas issues

@archos

I'm surprised Felix Wazekwa was nervous about the big concert halls in Europe, he had back to back success with Yo Nani and Et Apres. Do you feel his reservation was reasonable or did he have an inferiority complex to Koffi and others?

 I believe what was also holding him back is hearing from people around in the industry than you can only do such thing with humansacrifice and things like that so he was afraid,i remember some people who are now his ex friends were openly telling him if he accepts to create thanks to sorcerer 10 to 15 miscarriages in his group he could reach then the levels of maison mere bcbg quartier latin in terms of crazy popularity,crazy impact everywhere and so on
then he felt also that if he performed too early he could have flopped crowd wise and thats pretty much what matters most to congolese people,like mvulusi said zenith had a very bad impact on his career,so imagine his entrance in the top category started with a crowd flop it could have damaged his career forever at that time

@archos

What year was Felix trying to have his Zenith concert before Koffi sabotaged it? And did Gesac leave because they weren't going to Zenith and Olympia like Wenge and Quartier Latin or did he leave because Koffi offered more money?