Claim: Shatta Wale was seen in a viral image wearing a fancy black jumpsuit on Brit Awards red carpet.
Verdict: False. Shatta Wale did not attend the 2023 Brit Awards nor wore the alleged jumpsuit.
Full Text
In this image posted by HELLO VYBES, Charles Nii Armah Mensah, popularly called Shatta Wale, was seen wearing a fancy black jumpsuit. The photo has been circulating on social media. The image shows that it was taken on the red carpet of the Brit Awards in London.
The Brit Awards is an annual awards event to showcase the UK music industry and serves as an important platform to promote and introduce new talents. It was launched in 1977 in partnership with Mastercard.
The 2023 edition was held on Saturday, February 11, at The 02 Arena in London, with Harry Styles winning big on the night.
An image of Shatta Wale has since gone viral, suggesting he was present at the Brit Awards with a fancy jumpsuit on the red carpet.
Verification
DUBAWA checks revealed that, on the night of Saturday, February 11, 2023, Shatta Wale performed at the Oseikrom Invasion Concert held at Rattray park at Kumasi with Medikal, Asakaa boys and other musicians.
The Kumasi-based Nhyira TV posted this live video of Shatta Wale performing during the concert. Therefore, he couldn’t appear at another location on the same day.
A google reverse image search was done on the image. Still, no exact matches of Shatta Wale were found, nor a trace to the source of the image but rather an image of Sam Smith, a popular English songwriter and singer, wearing the exact costume at the same location.
Further searches prove that Samuel Smith was sighted on the red carpet on the awards night wearing that particular jumpsuit. The US magazine published this article about his costume. Other news portals published and posted a similar story with the same image; here and here.
Reacting to the edited photo, Shatta Wale made a live video, stating that he saw it on Facebook. He made fun of the image, asking if his eyes were tired before he wore the dress.
Conclusion
Shatta Wale did not attend the Brit Awards at 02 Arena in London. He performed at the Oseikrom Invasion Concert at Kumasi in Ghana that night. The shared image was doctored.
The researcher produced this fact-check per the DUBAWA 2023 Kwame Karkari Fellowship in partnership with Avenor TV, shinemegh.com and Chanell 7 7 Networks to facilitate the ethos of ‘’truth’’ in journalism and enhance media literacy in the country.
