How Praiz Performed At The Macallan Timeless Collection Port Harcourt Debut

Award-winning singer and songwriter Praiz brought a new level of ambience to the intimate The Macallan Timeless Collection launch that was held in Port Harcourt on Friday, May 1, 2026.

The award-winning artist headlined the exclusive evening at J Signature Hotel as The Macallan closed out its three-city Nigerian tour with the Port Harcourt debut of its Timeless Collection. Among those in attendance were Beauty Tukura, Funmi Olowole, Ying Goma, Uwem Etuck, Ayebetari Opara, and Janda Chukuigwe, a gathering that reflected the kind of crowd the brand has consistently drawn across its landmark rollout.

The Port Harcourt event marked the final stop of a tour that began in Lagos on April 17, moved to Abuja on April 24, and ended in the heart of the Niger Delta.

The purpose was clear, which was to formally introduce Nigeria to The Macallan’s redesigned Double Cask and Sherry Oak bottle collections, a visual evolution of one of the world’s most celebrated whisky brands.

Brand Ambassador Omodolapo Olaiwole walked guests through the heritage behind the refresh before a three-course dinner paired with expressions from the Double Cask Collection — the 12, 15, and 18 Year Old — and a final toast with the extraordinary 30 Year Old Double Cask. The bottles had changed. Everything that mattered had not.

When Praiz reached back for George Benson’s Nothing’s Gonna Change My Love For You, the intimate setting transformed. Guests turned to each other. Some sang back to him. Others sang to the people beside them. It was the kind of unrepeatable moment that fine whisky and live music occasionally conspire to create.

But Praiz did not linger in borrowed nostalgia. He brought his own. ‘Me and You’ and ‘Rich and Famous’, two of his most enduring records, slotted seamlessly beside the classics, proving that his own catalogue has earned its place among songs that do not age. His vocal delivery throughout was impeccable, controlled where it needed restraint, expansive where the song demanded it, and always in service of the feeling in the room rather than the performance itself.

It was fitting that a night built around timelessness ended this way, with an artist who understands that craft, whether in a bottle aged 30 years or a voice refined over a career, is never really about the moment it is received. It is about everything that went into it long before. The Macallan has made its case across Lagos, Abuja, and Port Harcourt. So has Praiz. Some things simply do not go out of style.