So you're a guest at an event, and one of the other guests is a celebrity, a singer or comedian and they're asked to perform, cool right? No, not cool.
If they're attending an event as guest, artists don't want to be called upon to perform, for free. In fact, they feel like it's exploitative of their livelihoods.
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Musician Moonchild tells Drum people abuse their access to them by asking for impromptu performances.
"People who do that are not friends. If you were really my friend you would not put me in an awkward position. If I go to the event as a guest, I expect to sit there like anyone else not to be asked to perform.
"If you do that to me, you'll never see me again. If you needed me to perform, you could have asked me and we would have made an arrangement. But choosing a route to put me in a corner is not the way to go about it," she says.
Writer and poet, Lebo Mashile took to social media to share her sentiments, saying expecting them to perform for free is disrespectful.
One of the 50 million reasons why I battle with social anxiety is from decades of being invited to events as a guest and then pushed into performing just because I am there. Please do not do this to performers. Manipulating people into doing their jobs for free is disrespectful.
— Lebogang Mashile (@lebomashile) September 8, 2021
Other artists, including Khaya Mthethwa, joined in and agreed.
OMG this has been done to me! Someone in my life used to invite me to parties then casually bring out my book and ask me to read. This is a nightmare. I hated it so much!!!!!!
— Kagiso Lesego Molope (@kagisokeo) September 8, 2021
I absolutely get this ??????????
— Khaya Mthethwa (@khayamthethwa) September 8, 2021
Just come say “hi” while shoving the mic down your throat ??
— Vazi (@SiphesihleVazi) September 9, 2021
In 2019, members of parliament hackled award winning singer Ringo Madlingozi, who is also an MP.
They called on him to "fill the gap" between matters being discussed. Minister Gwede Mantashe could even be heard saying "cula Ringo".
Ringo was never ready ?????????? pic.twitter.com/SZmeyoM7qg
— Dumisani Maluleke (@MrMaluleke) May 22, 2019
Etiquette when seeing your favorite stars is also not limited to happy events, Moonchild says people also ask for pictures at the most awkward of times.
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"Recently, at my sister's funeral someone did a video call with someone who was not at the funeral, for me to talk to them.
"This was at the graveyard when the coffin was going down. It was so inappropriate."
Actress Nandi Nyembe told Move! magazine that a fan asked for a picture as she walked beside the body of a loved one, escorting it from the hospital mortuary to the car of a private parlour.
"It was like they just saw a picture opportunity, and not a person grieving the loss of someone they held dear to them. It was a heartbreaking moment I'll never forget," she said at the time.
