Keyshia Cole Apologizes For Being Late To The Verzuz Battle

Keyshia Cole Apologizes For Being Late To The Verzuz Battle, Revealing Technical Issues Behind The Scenes

Keyshia Cole is speaking out about the highly anticipated Verzuz battle with Ashanti that took place on Thursday (Jan.21). The 39-year-old songstress received criticism for being over an hour late and seemingly having an attitude. The battle had been postponed twice due to COVID-19 concerns. theJasmineBRAND initially broke the story. 

With it being a long awaited event, fans were confused by Keyshia Cole’s demeanor. On Saturday (Jan. 23), Cole took to Instagram to officially apologize for being late and revealed what took place behind the scenes. She said,

“I want to apologize for not sitting my a** in that seat, because I was there and I should’ve sat down. I should’ve just sat in the seat, no matter if I felt like the visual wasn’t clear or they said my music wasn’t gonna be right or whatever it was.” 

She then revealed that while she was in her dressing room, she noticed that the video looked dark and wasn’t clear. She says that it was rapper O.T Genesis that encouraged  her not to go out there until the technical issues are fixed. Cole was ultimately trying to avoid another Teddy Riley situation. She said,

“I was really skeptical about that. I don’t want to go on and they not see me and I’m looking blurry, the connection is not right and everything like that. I said, ya’ll need to fix that first and then I’ll go out there.

Keyshia later admitted that she was nervous during the first three songs that she performed and also addressed rumors that she was “sauced up” during the battle.

“That’s not true. That’s a known fact that you can’t really be sauced up while you’re trying to sing and hit notes.”

She added,

“I was so nervous. When I first went on i was shaking. I was like nervous, I always get nervous. Every show that I ever have, when I first go out, I’m always nervous.”

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A post shared by Keyshia Cole (@keyshiacole)

Keyshia Cole

Following Thursday’s Verzuz battle, Keyshia Cole’s DJ did an interview giving some insight on what what was going on behind the scenes. He confirms that despite starting late, the singer was in fact there on time but due to sound issues and the blurriness on her end, she did not want to come out.

“In Keyshia’s defense I can truly say that she didn’t want to come out because her screen was blurry.  On her end her screen was blurry… She was there on time, I was there, I saw everything, she was there.  But she didn’t want to come out because the screen was blurry, and stuff wasn’t right. We couldn’t hear they side, so it was a lot of technical stuff going on in there you know.”

Despite the issues going on behind the scenes, the Keyshia Cole and Ashanti Verzuz drew its highest ratings yet on Instagram, with over 6 million viewers, and another 1.6 million on Apple Music.

What are your thoughts on Keyshia Cole’s apology? Let us know in the comments below!