Tanzanian songstress Saida Karoli has refuted claims that she received money from Diamond Platnumz for the adaptation of her song Maria Salome.
Saida says that she gave the song for free to Diamond, as her way of showing solidarity with Bongo artistes so as to help grow the music industry in their country to reach international levels.
However, she says that her manager, who she worked with to release five albums when she was still singing, received payments for the song without her consent, even after instructing him to give the song to Diamond for free, he went on to take money from Diamond accumulating up to 25 million Tanzanian shillings.
“My manager called me to tell me that Diamond was asking for my song to promote it again. I was so happy and told him right away to give him the song. However, I was shocked later to hear and read from the media that Diamond paid Tsh 25 million in an agreement,” said Ms Saida in an interview with KU TV. “I personally I haven’t seen the agreement, and I didn’t know anything about it. What I knew was that I gave him the song for free, so that we as artistes can help each other first, without putting money in front.”
In September, Diamond’s manager Sallam Sharaf came out to clear the air on the agreement between them and Ms Karoli’s team. Among other things, the copyright of the song remains with the original singer. Also, there was an undisclosed amount paid to Ms Karoli in the agreement that will see the proceeds of the remix shared equally.
Source: Nairobinews.nation.co.ke