Tonight’s highly anticipated Verzuz battle between Ashanti and Keyshia Cole has been rescheduled for next year upon news that Ashanti tested positive for the coronavirus.
With less than two hours to go before fans got to see the two R&B singers go head to head and discuss their hits, Ashanti broke the news to fans on Instagram.
“Hey y’all I can’t believe I’m saying this but I tested positive for COVID-19,” she said in a post just after 6 p.m.. “I’m OK and not in any pain. I’m actually down to do the Verzuz from my house ... we’re trying to figure it all out!!!”
The event has since been postponed.
“Unfortunately, we have to postpone tonight’s #VERZUZ. Ashanti tested positive for COVID-19, and we cannot put anyone at risk in the process,” the official Verzuz Twitter account said. “First time this has struck us so close to show time. We apologize to our incredible audience!”
Soon after, fans and others began speculating that Ashanti’s recent travels were to blame.
Despite the theorizing, Ashanti says that was not the case and she contracted the coronavirus from a family member in the States.
“To just be very, very very, very clear, yes, I’ve been traveling, yes, I went to Nairobi. I had an amazing time. And no, I did not get COVID from traveling. I did not get COVID from being in Africa or anything like that,” she said in an Instagram Live video Saturday night.
She went on to say everyone she traveled with went from country to country and had to get tested continuously. She said those she was traveling with did not test positive for the virus.
“I actually got it from a family member when I came home. So, I came home, and I hugged the family member that ended up being positive. I didn’t know he was positive. He didn’t know he was positive. So, when he went to get tested, I was like, ‘Oh.’
“And I got tested last night and that’s what it was. And so to be very clear, it had nothing to do with that,” she said, referring to assumptions that she contracted the virus during her travels.
Ashanti also expressed frustration that some thought she was lying about having tested positive.
“COVID is not anything to play with, you know what I’m saying,” she said. “People have died from it. People that I know have died from it and for people to think that I would fake that, like, I would really go out and say that I caught a virus ... There’s no reason -- no benefit at all for me to sit up here and tell the world that I tested positive for COVID.”
Although Ashanti wanted to try to do the event from her home, much like the original Verzuz events, Cole said in an Instagram Live with the “Rain On Me” singer that she wanted to be able to see her in person.
“I want to give you a hug. I want to love on you. I want to sing your songs in front of you,” Cole said. “I want you to be there and do the same. I want you to enjoy your flowers. I want to enjoy my flowers.”
The rescheduled date for the event is January 9, 2021.
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