Confusion trailed the absence of Nigerian music stars Kizz Daniel, Patoranking and Ckay, whose fans had expected to perform at the opening ceremony of the FIFA Qatar 2022 World Cup on Sunday, November 20, 2022.

Fans who thought the three hit makers were supposed to perform at the event became worried when they turned out to be conspicuously absent.

Several of them took to Twitter to express their disappointment.

It was, however, a case of misunderstanding, as none of the three music stars claimed that they would perform at the World Cup opening ceremony but only announced that they would perform during side events in the course of the almost month-long global soccer fiesta.

Kizz Daniel, for instance, had confirmed that he would be performing at Qatar 2022 World Cup on November 23 and not November 20 as fans speculated.

The 28-year-old whose real name is Oluwatobiloba Daniel Anidugbe, confirmed this in an Instagram post on Friday, November 11, where he posted photos of himself and other artistes that would be performing at the World Cup.

Captioning his post, he wrote: “This one is for Africa. This one is for Vado nation. See you in Qatar World Cup on 23/11/2022.”

As for reggae-dancehall singer, Patrick Okorie, popularly known as Patoranking, he is scheduled to perform at the Al Bidda Park in Qatar’s capital, Doha, on November 28.

The only one among them whose date of performance is not known is Chukwuka Ifeanyi, better known as Ckay. In an interview with Al Jazeera, Ckay had told the whole world that he was excited to be one of the artistes that would be performing at the World Cup.

He had said, “Even though we (Nigeria) did not qualify for the World Cup; at least, there is still Nigeria representation in the area of music.” CKay was, however, silent on the date and venue of his performance.

Nigeria’s 4th musical representative at the Qatar 2022 World Cup is David Adeleke, better known as Davido. Though he was not listed among the artistes that would performing at the World Cup, Davido featured on the theme song for the competition. He joined Latin-American singer, Trinidad Cardonna; and Qatari singer, Aisha, to record the song titled, ‘Hayya Hayya’ (Better Together)

The opening ceremony of the event in Qatar gave a visual spectacle to fans across the globe. Oscar-winning American actor Morgan Freeman was the narrator in the beginning as he extended one yellow-gloved hand to a FIFA World Cup ambassador suffering from a rare spinal disorder in an image meant to represent inclusion in a country facing international criticism over its human rights record.

Thereafter, lead vocalist of the Korean pop band BTS, Jung Kook, lit up the Al Bayt Stadium with his performance alongside Qatari singer Fahad Al-Kubaisi.

Qatar’s ruler then opened the World Cup with a call for people of all races and orientations to put aside their differences.

The first match of the competition saw hosts Qatar losing by two goals to nothing to Ecuador, thus becoming the first host nation to lose the opening match in the history of the World Cup.