Popular entertainment critic and pundit, Arnold Asamoah-Baidoo
Popular entertainment critic and pundit, Arnold Asamoah-Baidoo, has expressed his disappointment at the people who perceived Sonnie Badu's accident as a stunt.
Badu shared images on social media announcing he was injured a few days before his Rhythms of Africa concert held at Grand Arena, Accra.
He mentioned that although it was a domestic accident, he underwent surgery and was seen with crutches afterward.
Soon after the images went viral, some netizens suggested that he was faking it just to get attention for his concert.
But According to Arnold who was part of Sonnie Badu's team, he doesn't begrudge those who made such statements as he would have perceived same looking at the circumstances in which Sonnie Badu portrayed the whole thing.
Speaking as a pundit on UTV’s December 16, 2023 edition of the United Showbiz programme, Arnold mentioned that Ghanaians are not to blame as issues like that of the musician are usually seen as hype.
"Before Sonnie was about to start his show, people said he had faked his injury and that before the event, he had crutches and at the event, he put away the crutches and then after, went back for it. He is fake, his injury is fake and he only wants hype. I don't begrudge all those who said that. Maybe if I was on the other side, probably, I would say that it's true because a couple of days to your event, like a week, you claim you have injury, you've had surgery and you are using crutches."
"Probably, it's a stunt. And I will say that because in Ghana, more often than not, a lot of things are perceived to be stunts. Do you remember Wendy Shay had similar experience when she came here? So our mindset is such that anything that happens, the first thing we think or say is that it's a stunt and hype. It's fine because hype is part of the industry. But all those who said that are ignorant and that's not an insult," he said.
He further mentioned that Sonnie had initially assured the general public of his readiness for the show when the accident happened as the musician said doctors had told him they would give him some medications to numb the pain on the event day.
Arnold cited examples of how sportsmen are given such medical treatment whenever they get injured in crucial games, stressing that if it was possible in football, Sonnie Badu's incident and his ability to perform effortlessly on the night of the event should not surprise people or trigger any doubts.
Watch his remarks here:
VKB/BB
