Brandy performs for 40 people in 90,000 seat arena

Singer Brandy said to have performed for only 40 people in a South Africa arena that seats about 90,000. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images for BET)

By Nardine Saad

August 22, 2013, 3:57 P.M.

Brandy reportedly played to a nearly empty arena in South Africa this week.

The Grammy Award-winning R&B star was a surprise guest at the Nelson Mandela Sports and Cultural Day concert in Soweto on Saturday, but nearly all of the event-goers were gone by the time she took the stage, according to the Guardian.

The 34 year old "I Wanna Be Down" singer is said to have performed for about 40 audience members in FNB stadium, which has a 90,000-person capacity. Apparently there had been tens of thousands of people attending the earlier rugby and soccer matches, but most of them left while the musical segment — featuring four acts before Brandy — took place.

"Brandy [just] performed to an empty stadium. With the stadium lights on," tweeted Kabomo, a South African musician. "It was late. People didn't know there was a concert after the games. No one knew Brandy was around. Maybe a 40 people audience ... She sulked after two songs and walked off."

Awkward. In the words of Madonna, "The show is over, say goodbye..."



Brandy Best Friend from the self titled album "Brandy"

Video directed by Matthew Rolston

"Best Friend" is an dance-pop song with urban and R&B influences by American singer Brandy. It was written by Keith Crouch, and Glenn McKinney and produced by Krouch for her self-titled debut studio album, Brandy (1994).

The song released as the album's third single in June 1995. With peak positions of number 11 in New Zealand and number 34 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 the song was moderately successful. However, "Best Friend" peaked at number 7 on the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart. The song was also featured on her hit series Moesha, where Moesha and her friend cheerleading in the final scene of the episode "Friends" that aired in the same year.

Chart Position (1995) Peak

New Zealand RIANZ Singles Chart #11
U.S. Billboard Hot 100 #34
U.S. Billboard Hot R&B Singles #7



Brandy, full name Brandy Norwood, usually promotes her appearances on Twitter but didn't mention anything about her South Africa performance on social media either before or after the event. The newspaper site reported that the event's nationally televised broacast concluded just before Brandy's concert too.

On Aug. 20, her official website put up a post that seemed to intend to showcase a video of the performance. However, the actual post had no video and nothing beyond the show's basic details.

Perhaps because of the sparse turnout at the South Africa event, the singer has gone full force promoting her performances on both her Facebook and Twitter accounts. Neither she nor the  concert promoters have made any statements about the event, according to reports.

In recent years — since a 2006 car accident that killed one woman and embroiled the singer in years of litigation — the "Brandy and Ray J" reality star has built up her acting career. The "Moesha" alum has had stints on "90210" and "The Game" and appeared in Tyler Perry's "Temptation: Confessions of a Marriage Counselor."

She will next be featured on embattled singer Chris Brown's upcoming album "X." Brown was featured on Brandy's track "Put It Down" from her sixth studio album "Two Eleven," which was released last year.