Bilal Wahib gave his first solo show since the media row over his online misconduct this weekend, but failed to fill the room. “Has everything been forgotten and forgiven?” Frank Dane wonders.
More than a year ago, there was a huge fuss when Bilal Wahib challenged an underage boy during a live stream on Instagram to show his genitals in exchange for money. The boy did too, after which Bilal indicated that everything was a joke. He disappeared from the media for a long time and Instagram gave him a lifelong ban.
A little crazy
Now Bilal is back, but things are not going smoothly. The singer gave his first solo show on Saturday evening, in the Gashouder in Amsterdam, and RTL Boulevard reporter Giorgio Hokstam was there. He found a half-empty room.
Colleague Lex Uiting: “It is a bit crazy – especially with all those other artists involved: Bizzy, Antoon, hip names now – that the hall is only half full.”
Giorgio thinks it’s because of the Insta ban. “Yes, indeed, I noticed that too. It wasn’t completely filled and I guess that has something to do with the fact that he doesn’t have Instagram anymore of course.
Insta-ban
That Insta ban is disastrous for Bilal, according to Giorgio. “Of course he had 330,000 followers and a very large part of them have absolutely no idea what is going on in his life and what he is doing now. I think if he still had Instagram, the entire Westergasfabriek would have been filled.”
Frank Dane critically: “Yes, because has everything been forgotten and forgiven?”
Giorgio: “Forget, forgive: yes, I don’t know. But I think that boy has paid enough, I think.”
Filling rooms
Frank fears the worst for Bilal. “If I hear it that way, he really needs that Instagram to fill rooms. Is there ever any chance he will get it back?”
Bilal still hopes to return to Instagram. “He says himself: ‘If it doesn’t work, so be it.’ He has now fully focused on TikTok, but he also says about it: ‘Instagram is nice and easy, you post a nice photo and you have reached your people’, but at TikTok you have to think a bit about what kind of video you want to make. ”
Promotion
Frank: “He has to hope that Elon Musk will also buy Instagram.”
After the summer, Bilal will do a club tour. Giorgio: “Let’s hope he either has his Instagram back or that his management will make a little more effort to get their hands on the promotion, because this was not quite it.”
Fragment
The excerpt from RTL Boulevard:
