Mayor speaks after backlash on $37,000 spent on Monica’s no-show performance in North Carolina

DURHAM, N.C. (WNCN) — Durham’s Mayor Leonardo Williams says his phone has been blowing up since the Bimbé Festival’s headlining performance from Grammy-award-winning singer Monica never happened .

He said it has come with lots of criticism aimed at him.

“How many people only read a headline and don’t read the story,” he said. “The mayor did not steal any money and the mayor did not spend $37,000 to an unknown person.”

The city had signed a contract with a local promoter in Cary known as the Incomparable Chris Weeks. The contract spells out a 60-minute performance with R&B Singer Monica.

Mayor Williams also shared documentation of the down payment made to the promoter Chris Weeks in the amount of $37,000.

“Between our contractor, the promoter and the agent who’s working with Monica and the current agent who’s working with Monica will have to figure that out,” he said.

Promoter Chris Weeks sent the following statement to CBS 17: “I contracted with one of Monica’s booking agents for her to perform at Bimbe. She did not perform. Everything was done on the city’s and my part to ensure that the show would happen.”

“The discrepancies were on her end and had nothing to do with the City of Durham or myself,” he also said.

CBS 17 looked at Monica’s Instagram page, where she posted a video about the situation last Friday night that has since been deleted.

Maurio Jackson, a booking agent with Monica’s team, BLUEICE Group, shared the following statement with CBS 17: “Unfortunately Chris did not work with anyone on Monica’s team for the mentioned event.”

Mayor Williams says he is already looking into some options to keep this from happening again.

“I will be looking at better procedures we can put in place as a policy to provide for managers to implement amongst city staff,” said Williams.

Mayor Williams says they’re expecting the full refund to come to the city any day now. He also said they will be releasing more information from their investigation soon.

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