Tyla drops Lagos from concert tour amid boycott calls from Nigerians over xenophobia

South African pop star Tyla

South African music star Tyla has removed Lagos from the itinerary of her upcoming APOP World Tour, days after the announcement of her Nigerian concert triggered a heated backlash over alleged xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa.

A check of the singer’s published tour schedule on Friday showed that the December 22 Lagos date is no longer listed. Tyla is still scheduled to take the tour to South Africa, with Cape Town set for January 4, 2027, and Johannesburg on January 9.

The development comes barely days after Tyla announced Lagos as part of the African leg of her first major headline world tour in support of her recently released album, APOP*.

When initially unveiled, the 34-date tour was to move from Europe and North America to Lagos on December 22 before continuing to Cape Town and Johannesburg. Contemporary reports at the time confirmed Lagos as the first African stop on the tour.

Lagos date sparks backlash

The decision to include Lagos quickly became controversial.

While many Nigerian fans welcomed the prospect of seeing the Grammy-winning singer perform in the country, others took issue with hosting a South African artiste amid renewed anger over reports of xenophobic attacks involving Nigerians living in South Africa.

Calls for a boycott began circulating on social media almost immediately after the tour announcement.

Some Nigerians argued that allowing Tyla to perform in Lagos would amount to overlooking the treatment of Nigerians in South Africa, while others rejected the idea of punishing an individual artiste for actions allegedly committed by other South Africans.

The debate exposed the familiar tension between entertainment and politics: whether cultural exchanges should continue normally when diplomatic and social relations between two countries are strained.

No explanation from Tyla yet

Although Lagos has disappeared from the tour schedule, Tyla has not, at the time of publication, publicly announced a cancellation or given a reason for the removal.

That distinction is important.

The timing has fuelled speculation that the backlash contributed to the decision, and several Nigerian reports have connected the development to the boycott campaign. But without a statement from Tyla, her management or the concert organisers confirming the reason, the cause of the change remains unverified.

Her African itinerary now effectively leaves Nigeria out while retaining her two South African dates.

A tour that was meant to bridge Africa

Tyla's original African schedule was notable because it placed Lagos between the international leg of the tour and her home-country performances.

The December 22 Lagos show would have been followed by Cape Town on January 4 and Johannesburg on January 9, giving the singer three major African dates to close out the tour.

Instead, the removal of Lagos has turned what was expected to be a celebration of African pop's global reach into another flashpoint in the long-running Nigeria-South Africa relationship.

For supporters of the boycott, the development is being viewed as a consequence of the growing frustration over the treatment of Nigerians in South Africa.

For those who opposed the boycott, however, the episode raises a different question: whether artistes should bear the consequences of political and social disputes they did not personally create.

For now, one thing is clear — Lagos was on Tyla's original tour schedule, and it is no longer there. Why it disappeared remains unanswered.