Simi has headlined Lagos rooms before: a Hard Rock Café debut in 2017, her first Simi Live in Lagos at the Federal Palace Hotel in 2018, and Can You Simi Now at Muri Okunola Park in 2021. This December she is taking Simi Live to Abuja as well. She plays POP Landmark in Lagos on Saturday, December 5, and Abuja the following Saturday, December 12, the night before Wizkid headlines Eagle Square.
“My goat is finally coming to Abuja,” one fan replied under her announcement on Friday. Others went straight to the one thing the poster leaves out, which is where in Abuja. That venue is still to be named.
The Simi Live name goes back to late 2018, when she followed a London date in November with a Lagos night at the Federal Palace’s Balmoral Convention Centre on December 9. That show was billed for 6pm, and she did not reach the stage until 10:30pm, because the hall had hosted another event the day before and her team could not set up in time. The next day she posted a video on Instagram captioned “i’m sorry.” Three years later, under her own label Studio Brat, she came back with Can You Simi Now! Live with the Banjos, a 90s-dress night at Muri Okunola Park. “It’s been 2 years,” she wrote when she announced it, “and I’m about to make it up to you.”
Tickets for that 2021 show started at ₦10,000, with Golden Circle at ₦25,000; this time there is one ticket in each city, at ₦30,000.
The crowd also has more songs to ask for than it did in 2021. Her 2024 album Lost and Found brought in Tiwa Savage on “Men Are Crazy,” Falz on “Borrow Me Your Baby” and Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey on “Jowo.” This year she has put out “Where You Dey” with Chike in January and, in September, an acoustic version of “Smile for Me,” first released in 2017 on her album Simisola. One Abuja fan has already set the terms for December 12: “Simi, if dem born you well, make you no perform ‘Smile For Me’ and ‘Angelina’!”
Studio Brat is presenting both nights with the Lagos events brand Summer Afro Rave, and tickets are on iamsimi.com.