Visa 'bottleneck' puts UK Afrobeats concerts in jeopardy

British Foreign Minister's praise of world's fastest growing musical genre rings hollow as artists face visa hurdles

Afrobeats singer Rema performs at the Slottsfjell Festival 2023 in Norway. Photo: Redferns

Afrobeats is one of the fastest growing musical genres in the world and the UK is home to one of its largest fan bases, but rising stars in the industry are becoming increasingly unable to perform in front of British audiences due to visa delays.

British Foreign Secretary James Cleverly acknowledged the genre’s enormous potential during his visit to Nigeria this week.

“From Lagos to London, Afrobeats is becoming a defining sound of this century,” he wrote on X, the social media site formerly known as Twitter, while being shown how to operate recording equipment at a music studio in the Nigerian capital.

“There is no greater symbol of Nigeria’s potential. Both the UK and Nigeria benefit from this global phenomenon.”

But these words ring hollow, experts say, as Afrobeats artists continue to face challenges when they apply for UK visas.

“It has put a bottleneck on our operations,” said Jennifer Imion, operations manager at Mavin Records, a Lagos-based music label which represents world-leading Afrobeats artists.

The label is busy preparing for major Afrobeats concerts in the UK this autumn, including one featuring Nigerian singer Rema, who is set to perform for an audience of 20,000 people at London’s O2 stadium. Artist Ayra Starr will also perform at another major London venue.

The costs and delays associated with UK visa applications, however, makes the future of such performances uncertain.

“It becomes really scary for me and that’s why I ask myself how do I get ahead of the process,” Ms Imion told The National.

She estimated that for every 10 visa applications she had made in the past, four were delayed to the point of needing to postpone or cancel the trip.

The damage goes beyond the show and threatens the label’s business and lifeline.

“It causes us to lose money and makes us look unprofessional, because the artist will have to say 'sorry fans, I can’t come,' ” she said.

“If it's big festivals then [our show] cannot be postponed, and they will have to go on without us.”

Revenues from the Nigerian music industry are expected to reach $44 million in 2023, according to analysis by Statista.

The costs of a delayed application are enough to bring an independent business like Mavin Records to the ground.

“It’s not just the visa application. We may have already invested in flights and hotels,” Ms Imion said.

Some artists were left for months without a passport as they waited for their application to be reviewed – forcing them to cancel commitments elsewhere.

“One artist had his passport there for three months. So we lost a lot of shows,” she said.

UK visitor visa rejection by nationality. Photo: Lago Collective

Ms Imion said she has faced delays even after paying for the priority service, which claims to process an application within five working days for an additional £500.

She was now compelled to pay for the super priority 48-hour turnaround, which costs an additional £800.

“The cost of these operations has taken the bulk of [our budget]. When we take out all the costs, its really peanuts just left,” Ms Imion said.

The label team accompanying the artists on their tours also faced the same challenges and added to the visa costs.

“For the artists to be their best selves on the trip, they definitely need the label representatives or the team with them,” she said.

Such is the climate of uncertainty around the visa application process that Ms Imion declined to discuss the cases of specific artists, so as not compromise their future applications.

Though they have never had a visa rejected, after significant delays, they simply withdrew their applications.

“Because it takes such a long time, we do not wait for a decision to be made,” she said.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will host the forthcoming UK-Africa Investment Summit in 2024, in which African creative industries will play a role.

But he also increased visa fees in July by up to 20 per cent to pay for the UK's public sector wage increase.

Visa applicants from Africa were the most likely to be rejected, according to an analysis of Home Office data from March 2022 to 2023 by the Lago Collective, a London-based platform for creatives, innovators and policymakers.

“It is great to see so much interest in the creative industries in UK and African relations,” said Marta Foresti, founder and chief executive of the Lago Collective and a visiting fellow at ODI global affairs think tank.

“However these will be hollow commitments without serious reforms of the UKs visa regime which discriminates against African creatives and limits opportunities for them as well as for UK audiences.”

It's not just the arts that are affected. As of Thursday, three Eritrean cyclists who were scheduled to take part in the UCI Cycling World Championships, a tournament in Scotland beginning on Sunday, had yet to receive their visas.

“Time is now very short though as these riders need to prepare and rest ahead of this Sunday’s 270-kilometre race,” said Africa Rising Cycling, an advocacy group, on social media.

“We believe there is still hope and that the UK government will expedite any review of this situation and solve it.”

Afrobeats singer Ayra Starr performs in Paris. Getty Images

These restrictions also prevent the cross-border collaborations that have been necessary for the industry to grow in both countries.

“We try to do boot camps in the UK where we get our songwriters, producers, and artists to meet our partners there,” said Ms. Imion.

“On one of these occasions, one of our artist’s passport never came. The boot camp was in June, and his passport wasn't returned until July or August. Even though it had been paid for as priority.”

Nonetheless the UK remains an important destination for Afrobeats.

“[The UK is] one of the first places where we see traction outside of the continent, and where we have a reputable fan base,” Ms Imion said.

“When we want to invest in an artist’s career to gain global relevance, that is one of our first choices.

In July, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan hailed the capital as the “undisputed world leader in live music” after a series of concerts brought in £320 million in ticket sales in one week.

Afrobeats has a huge emotional significance to UK audiences, Ms Imion added.

“People grow up with this music, and they want to see the artist in person. There are people like me who live in the UK and were born and brought up there. There’s the culture of being away from home, of not ever being at home,” she said.

“But when you see the artist live, it’s a different feeling. You can see people like you perform the kind of music you listen to at home.”