Today, it’s 23 years ago that King Kester Emeneya performed at Zenith de Paris.

Background;
In June 2000, the long awaited album Longue Histoire finally came on market. The album was a huge success when it came out and immediately topped the musicharts. The success of the album made Emeneya receive a contract from concert-promoter José Kapesa and his production-house Casa Tropical for events at La Madeleine in Brussels on December 29th, LSC in Paris Suburb Saint Denis for December 30th and London during Eve-Year 2001 with tour dates for different European cities. However, there were few problems. The majority of Victoria Eleison was stuck in Kenya for months. Beside that, shortly after the release of Longue Histoire, Emeneya fell out with JDK Decor who was one of the guys working with him for the production of the album. Emeneya accused him of stealing money and JDK Decor said that Emeneya himself wasn't fair in  the finances. It was Emeneya’s story that was believed the most and Emeneya would later accuse JDK Decor for producing Papa Wemba at Bercy with that money. Anyway, it created some serious problems for the promotion of the album later.




With the events of La Madeleine & LSC already being promoted and fans getting impatient, Emeneya went to join Victoria Eleison in Kenya and brought them to Tanzania, where he was joined by some staff members of Europe. They started to shoot some video clips there and as preview of it, they released the VHS “Mutu ya Zamani” which had the participation of comedian-singer Mbuta Likasu.



The video was produced by Mambo de Panama, who was one of Emeneya’s staffmembers and sold as crazy in Europe. But it created at the same time some problems between Emeneya and Mambo de Panama. In meantime Emeneya started touring in Tanzania, to short out the financial problems/debts they had in Kenya. Shortly after finishing the tour and getting to Zambia, Emeneya said to the guys that he decided to cancel the tour. His decision frustrated the whole band, because they felt like Emeneya didn’t want them to tour in Europe. Being promised since 1998 to tour in Europe, but seeing their rivals of Nouvelle Ecriture and Quartier Latin keeping going to Europe and themselves being stuck in Kinshasa, seeing their  USA-Canada getting canceled. Another thing is also the way they suffered months long in Kenya. The most frustrated guys were Guy Moller and Zoe Bella who decided to leave the United States to rejoin the band in Kenya. Although the incident, they continuted performing and gave concerts in Zambia, Kassumbalesa and Lubumbashi. Because of some issues they had with finances, Joseph Kabila who was the general at that time (1 month before becoming president), helped them to get back in Kinshasa



Coming in Kinshasa another conflict started between Mambo de Panama & King Kester Emeneya. Mambo de Panama wanted to let the musicians stay at Grand Hotel de Kinshasa for 2 weeks, like the way Wenge BCBG, Wenge Maison Mère and Quartier Latin were doing when coming back from Europe. But Emeneya was totally against it, wanting them to go back to their families. Because of the previous problems they had, Mambo de Panama decided to leave Victoria’s staff. In meantime Emeneya gave his first concert at Cinemax. But the concert was a huge flop and almost nobody showed up. This gave journalists that didn’t like him, to write immediately bad articles. Emeneya managed to get the control back by performing the following day at a packed YMCA-stadium in Matonge. After the events, the musicians started to come with tv-appearances, but deep down they were a bit disappointed to have missed out in Kinshasa, in the period when the album came out. Later on, Emeneya went with his band to Brazzaville and Mbanza-Kongo in Angola. When coming back from these concerts, atalaku Guy Moller decided to not show up anymore to rehearsals and concerts. Guy Moller felt betrayed that Emeneya still didn’t want to repay his plane ticket, while he promised to do that, when he had a conversation with him on the phone in USA about.




After the serie of concerts in Africa, Emeneya decided to return to Europe, to shoot some clips over there and release videotape of Longue Histoire-clips and also look for contracts. When being in Europe, the guys that were still about the episode in Kenya and USA, decided to leave. Because of knowing how much Mambo de Panama contributed to rebirth of Victoria Eleison in 1997 (him being the person who recruited them all), they decided to contact him to become their manager/boss/donor. Their first reunion was at Veve Center. Zozo Malaba and Ade Lokela who were also part of the meeting, saw that all the focus were on the singers and atalaku’s, decided after it to not take part to the project and just stay with Victoria Eleison. Only the drummer Coco Tchomba decided to stay as instrumentalist coming Victoria. In meantime, Emeneya just received his contract for Zenith de Paris. The following week, Guy Moller, Anthony Sampaio, Zoe Bella, Sweet Elesse and Eric Masudi went on tv to announce their departure. Emeneya who was in Europe didn’t take it seriously and thought that it was a problem that could be fixed in no time. After staying some months in Europe, he decided to come back in Kinshasa. The clips of Longue Histoire came on the market and were doing well.




Staffmembers in Kinshasa tried to convince the guys to come back. Sweet Elesse accepted to come back and was even taken by staffmembers to get Emeneya from the airport, they had a conversation and managed to short the problems out. When they went to Emeneya’s house “King Ranch”, he was immediately attacked by the musicians, who called him traitor. The incident made Sweet Elesse decide to not rejoin the group. Seeing how Sweet Elesse almost rejoin Victoria Eleison and realizing how they would risk to not succeed as band if one of them would leave, Mambo and Guy came with different strategies to stay intact against any proposition. To fill the void that was left by the musicians that left, plans were made to recruit new musicians and dancers (they even a few dancers that decided to follow the guys that left. Guys like Fila Basele, Paparazzi (coming from Quartier Latin), Pompom Miyake (coming from Nouvelle Ecriture), Cedar Ankura, Arc en Ciel, Mulo Scanto, Gianni Mangoma and Yannick Zenith were recruited. They started slowly to prepare the show of Zenith. At the same time a video on the market were Mambo de Panama got seriously insulted by Emeneya’s fanatic. The same video had footage of Emeneya talking about his show at Zenith and the creators of Kiwanzenza and Tchaku Libondas showing their dance-skills





To get the fans ready for the Zenith-show a video got released on the market with the musicians and dancers of Victoria Eleison, presented by comedians Mbuta Likasu and Esobe with the new dance Tchafulu, which meant to replace Kiwanzenza and Tchaku Libondas. To prepare the show of Zenith 2001, Emeneya asked help from Maitre Jefferson, who was the man behind his famous show at Palais du Peuple in 1990 and guitarist Vieux Faugus former guitarist of Tabu Ley’s African Fiesta Peuple.



While preparing the Zenith-show, different bandleaders (Koffi Olomidé, Papa Wemba and Nyoka Longo) started calling Emeneya’s concertpromoter Felix Pétit. Saying to him, that it was better to cancel the event, because of key-members having left the band and Emeneya being “finished”. Being surprised by the calls and thinking about the situation, Felix Petit was to cancel the event. During one of the rehearsals, Emeneya received a call from him, it made Emeneya getting emotional, he did his best to convince him to not cancel the show and even said that he would perform for free. Petit Felix then said that he would think about it and call him back. Emeneya said nothing about it to the musicians and continued the rehearsal. The incident hurt him alot and he explained the situation to his staffmembers and the day after the story got spread everywhere. The following day, Felix Petit called him back and said that he accepted Emeneya proposition. In the days that came, Emeneya made different interviews accusing Koffi Olomidé and Papa Wemba openly about calling his concertpromoter and them being the one behind the departure of his musicians. These revelations shocked everybody. A few weeks before the event, the musicians received visa’s for Zenith and also those that left. Staffmembers tried to convince the musicians that left to come back, by showing the visa’s. But most of them didn’t believe it, thinking that it was a fake and the event Zenith a farce like Madeleine. The staffmembers tried also to involve their parents and wives to convince them, but they all refused. At the same time the musicians that left were promised to do the 1st part at Papa Wemba’s Bercy and they were convinced that they would go to Europe with Nouvelle Ecriture.



Here a video of them performing at Village Bercy in Limete (one of Kinshasa's area)

Event;
When coming to Europe many fans and mabanga customers who were not aware about the situation, were surprised of the departure of Guy Moller of co. The day that Emeneya was about perform at Zenith, gospel artist Mbuta Kamoka and Rene Lokua performed at Zenith earlier that day. Emeneya-fans would for years claim that they did the 1st part for them.



When coming to the event itself, the concert of Emeneya was sold out and ironically, Koffi Olomidé and Papa Wemba who were accused of trying to sabotage his show were spotted in the hall as visitors. The way Emeneya’s show sold out made the concertpromoter being a bit ashamed about what happened and in return he gave Emeneya the ights over the images for free, since that he didn’t receive anymore over Zenith. During the show Emeneya paid tribute to his idol Tabu Ley by singing the songs Assambalela and Moussa. Emeneya also performed the song Bosey and invited Bipoli to sing it him. Bipoli then gave himself the nickname Lazard (Lazarus) as reference to the story in the bible, where Jesus resorted his life after 4 days of death. Because of having dissapeard years long from the spotlights in music and Emeneya using the nickname Jesus back in the 1980s when he was on his prime.  For those who don’t know Bipoli, Bipoli is in fact the orginal founder of Victoria Eleison. When they were all in Viva la Musica, there were different projects to leave the band, but it was Bipoli who got the guts to announce on tv that 12 musicians left and they spent 2 months in N’djili at his family house to prepare songs and official appearance of Victoria Eleison “the 12 apostles”. It was the popularity of Emeneya that made him the main-star and because of conflict about leadership Bipoli quickly left.




The moment of Bipoli and Emeneya at Zenith would 3 years later used in the video about their beef.

Aftermath;

It has been said that the musicians that left Victoria, had many regrets afterwards of not participating to Zenith, although never adimitting it openly (except Eric Masudi after becoming a brother in christ). The majority of them would all return back to Victoria Eleison after the end of the tour, only Guy Moller refusing to rejoin.  About the concert itself, the concert would be released as cassette in two volumes (1 & 2)





Being a perfectionist and not satisfied about Zenith, also about the sound of Longue Histoire, Emeneya decided to go back to the studio and record the event live in the studio. It got brought on the market as “Rendre à César” as reference to the expression “Give to Caesar what is Caesar's or what belongs to Caesar”, wanting to say that people had to give him the respect what used to get when he was on his prime (1982-1987).




The concert of Zenith would get voted by ACMCO as best concert of the year. The succes of the concert made people/fans/journalists talk about the possibility of a Bercy in 2002. Felix Petit who was really happy about Zenith 2001 went back to Emeneya in 2002 to work on an event at Olympia which would take place in April. The sound of the concert at Zenith de Paris would get released on a cd which also had the live-version of Olympia. The live-album was produced by donor Didi Kinuani who hadn’t any experience with production. It would sadly not receive the same success as Rendre à César

I forgot to add to aftermath;
Being Victoria's first tour in Europe, Nouvelle Ecriture went to throw a little short towards them in the remix version of Bakala dia Kuba, by saying "bazuaka te, bazwi", before Alpacino started the lulendo-cri

Also Dream Team of Guy Moller and co. ended up by not doing Papa Wemba's first part at Bercy

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Looking back to the missed Europe-tour of 2000-01. The planning they had for the first week was crazy, having 3 concerts in 3 days in 3 different countries (belgium, france & u.k.). It would have been tiring, having already performed in Brussels and Paris, then having to travel to UK and performing for like 4 hours.

Do you think Guy Moller and everyone that left Victoria Ellison regretted their decision? I'm surprised they stuck to their decision to stay away after Zenith was announced, wouldn't some rejoin just for the trip to Europe?

It's too bad things didn't work out for Guy Moller, Anthony Sampaio, Zoe Bella, Sweet Elesse and Eric Masudi. Mambo Panama probably thought he could create an Academia or Masion Mere from those guys but the support wasn't there...

Why did Papa Wemba change his mind about them opening for his concert? That could have given them a big boost. I'm guessing Wemba and Kester made peace behind the scenes

Apart Guy Moller, they all indirectly and directly admitted about regretting of missing out at Zenith. Anthony Sampaio once said an interview that, when he left Dream Team, that he used to watch the Zenith-concert at home often and that he was the only person missing. He was waiting for Victoria Eleison to return to rejoin them until he got approach by Papa Wemba and him joining Nouvelle Ecriture. Having the faith to go with them to Europe, but not long after it Papa Wemba getting arrested and people mocking him that he was cursed, because of still not managing to get in Europe. Eric Masudi who’s now a brother of christ, said that “the power satan” made him get distracted by his friends and making a choice that messed his life up.

The guys were convinced that Emeneya would not bring Victoria to Europe like the way he canceled the Madeleine-tour on the last minute. Because he promised them a tour for year and it didn’t happen. If you listen to But na Filet, you can hear him talk about them being in Brooklyn and stuff like that. But they didn’t go (except Guy Moller, Zoe Bella and Mbuta Bass). So they thought that with Zenith it would be same way

Except Guy Moller & Anthony Sampaio, they all rejoined Victoria (Masudi for a short time, Zoe Bella and Sweet Elesse). Mambo de Panama didn’t create the group. It was created by Guy Moller and the  rest joining, Mambo was contacted later, since that they wanted someone to coach/manage them and acknowledge about the way he recruited them into Victoria Eleison. 

I think that Papa Wemba didn’t want to associate with him, being already accused for trying to destabilize Victoria Eleison. To have them as first part was JDK Decor who was close to Mambo de Panama, since they both first worked for King Kester Emeneya. Mambo then changed the program and them waiting the EP “Contre Attaque” get released to start a tour in Europe with concert promoter Jose Kapesa with the project to record their album “Qui dit Mieux” of 12 tracks over there. But they had bad luck, because the producer that was meant to produce disappeared away with the album (them suspecting that he was sent by Emeneya’s clan), it  caused long delay. In meantime guys started to leave one by one, because of war about leadership, first Sampaio, then Sweet Elesse and Zoe Bella later following. Contre Attaque finally got released, but it flopped and the project for the Europe-tour occulted. Guy Moller was left on his own and later managed to get in Europe were he spend some months to return back and work on his solo-album.

Papa Wemba and King Kester Emeneya were on cold for a long moment until a common friend/donor  made them meet each other at restaurant to re-talk about the “Disque d’Or’ project, but Emeneya was not really motivated (still holding a bit that grudge). However there were still some talks indirectly and Papa Wemba already started to talk about the album in the media and many fans were impatient. Journalists like Zacharie Bababswe would make noise by saying that there would finally come a proper duo-album and not one artist dominating the other one or the album being centered around one person. But out of nowhere a Double-Zenith project for the Wake-Up-album came and the hype around Disque d’Or disappeared in no time. Both guys (Emeneya and Wemba) also not being on good terms because of another story that happened behind the scenes

That was worth the read; Are we gonna get a backstory of King Kester Emeneya's Stade Des Matrys concert (26-10-1997/26-10-24)

My planning was to write something about JB Mpiana’s first Stade des Martyrs in November (I already started it) and maybe Academia at Palais du Peuple (but there's no image of it anymore) in the same month. I was mostly writing articles to celebrate 25th anniversary since that it’s a quarter decade, then I got asked to do one for Werra’s Bercy, JB’s Bercy and one of Emeneya’s Zenith. But I looks like people are not really interested in article’s about Emeneya. But since you asked it, I will try to do it around December.

The problem is that I only do not really exactly know the dates compared to the events of early 2000s and 1999. I was mostly writing it through my memory. One example is Succes Fous’, I don’t remember if it was in March 1997 or Mai 1997, the same with Mboka Mboka if it was either Mai 1998 or March 1998. Martin Sinnock’s website unfortunately doesn’t exist anymore to retrace it.  Also the spotlights weren’t on Emeneya anymore before Stade des Martyrs, which makes me not know many stuff with also Emeneya’s archives of 1997 & 1996 being rare (for example the famous ‘Tais Toi’ VHS. So it will take some time, because I will have to need to re-watch interviews of guys like Guy Kimvula, Denis Lutula, Guy Moller and co. to mix it with the few things I know based on memory

That's no problem and understable it's shame that many archives were not saved, and thanks, but then again thanks for writing these articles especially the dates it also interesting to read about these big events.