It's a shame that Werrason never  performed at Olympia with all the succes he had. Him only performing there as one of late Manu Dibangu's main guest in 2001.




The first opportunity was in 1999. The dates they were putting at Villejuif (the first one in May being cancelled because of not receiving visa's) before the planned Olympia were tests. But the event at Olympia for July 10th ended up by being cancelled. It got cancelled out of respect for Papa Wemba, after being contacted by his staff (Eric Kenzo and co). At that time Papa Wemba  planned a show on the same date in Brussels at Forest National to celebrate his 50th birthday and 30 years in music. It created anger among his fanatics in Kinshasa. Werrason and his musicians made interviews in Europe  to calm his fans down and his spokemen in Kinshasa doing the same thing. At the same time they announced his show at Palais des Sports. But back in his head, Werrason was still thinking about Olympia and wanted to perform there after Solola Bien. It had been said that Werrason apparently not being happy for the way JB Mpiana ended up by performing at Olympia before him and being mad for the way media used to hype JB's show at Olympia and that of Zenith. He was really determinated to put a great show at Olympia in 2000. But he had only the (bad)luck that when a vote was planned at La Zamba Playa to choose about where to do a show the following Europe-tour between Zenith, Olympia & Bercy, the majority of fans voting for Bercy.



In 2002, the name Olympia came back during the recordings of A La Que Leu Leu. Seeing that Koffi didn't do his Triple Olympia like planned, they adopted it like the original double Zenith that Koffi wanted to do in 2001. However, it quickly dissapeared when in the same period the project of Stade Charlety for 2003 (and later 2004) appeared that also never happened.



In 2007, the during the tour of Sous Sol and them recording Temps Present & world album Simply the Best "Sans Poteau" at the same time. There were talks about a Double Olympia-event. But Werrason wanted to wait to release his world-album. In 2009, the project reappeared and the show was planned for July 2009 with the intention to release Techno Malewa and his world-album at the same time, also to present solist Petit Poussin as one of the main stars. But for whatever reasons it didn't happen and the show pushed to 2010.



In 2010 when everybody was waiting for Double Olympia. Meganet came with the contract for Zenith. When being asked about why Double Olympia didn't take place, Werrason would like in 1999 give the reason about Olympia being to small and in other interviews that he wanted to re-do Zenith because of the things that happened in 2008 with combattans who tried to sabotate his show and many people saying about the concert of 2008 not being good.



The same year when Werrason returned back to Kinshasa, there were talks to plan it for december 2010 to celebrate christmas and Diego Music claiming that Techno Malewa vol. 1 became gold that they would present it there. But the project dissapeared and Ferre then planning not long after it also Double Olympia but for new year, which also didn't happen. Just before the tour of 2011 that was messed up by combattans, Werrason explained that Double Olympia didn't happen, because of him wanting to release Techno Malewa Suite et Fin first, them pushing it to 2012. But the event would never take place because of the concert-ban by combattans starting

1999 was the perfect time for him to do it

Thinking about it what werra did was massive,i doubt there is even one french artist who did bercy before doing zenith
i think he would accept olympia now that there is a bit more of self acceptance that the prime days are long gone for their generation,it was unthinkable for him before because it was too small but i think now it would be a fair target 

Thinking about it what werra did was massive,i doubt there is even one french artist who did bercy before doing zenith
i think he would accept olympia now that there is a bit more of self acceptance that the prime days are long gone for their generation,it was unthinkable for him before because it was too small but i think now it would be a fair target

Werrason deserve to earn respect from those  "youtube-journalists". It's rare to see an artist do Bercy straight away and fill it. Many would have failed.


I don't think that it was unthinkable for him because he did multiple shows at smaller venues like LSC, Elysee Montmartre, Savigny le Temple & Bataclan between 2004 and 2007. The local council of Saint Denis at some point didn't want to see him perform at LSC anymore because of the havoc it was creating everytime and people everywhere from Europe trying to get in when performing there. I don't remember any Congolese artist performing at LSC  after Werra's last show in 2005 until it got closed (except gospel artists).

I only wonder if Werrason will be able to fill Olympia today.

I don't think it was necessary. He was already successful by doing the concerts that he was given. He developed a solid fan base in Europe during the years of 1999 to 2004. His concerts were always successful. So if Werrason did not perform at Olympia, it means nothing if you ask me.

Olympia is the most mythic musichall in the French speaking world. It exists since 1893. Almost all artists dream to perform there. You have artists that already had done Bercy and Stade de France but still return to Olympia or go there for the first time to perform and when coming there they will perform  weeks long (for example 4 or 5 days in week and that 2 months). Also tickets at Olympia are often more expensive than those of Bercy & Zenith. I don't know if its still the case today.

Its just that INA Congo's got closed or I could have shared here the video of Roger Ngandu explaining in sophisticated words lol why performing at Olympia is more prestigious than performing at Bercy.


With Congolese artists it lives less compared to French artists and those coming from their former colonies, because of not being colonized by the French and not really having that historic culture about musical monuments. Good example is how Cine Palladium got demolished while it had a pages of history of our music, no protest being there of comedians, artists and musicians for the way Palais du Peuple became the parliament or the way Bar-vis-a-vis being neglected. If we know Olympia its because of Tabu Ley having an event there in 1970 and putting Africa on the map by performing there and the young generation knowing it because of Koffi.