By Kehinde Ajose
Some memories are just impossible to erase. ‘The Road to MAMA’ concert which held at the Federal Palace Hotel,Victoria Island penultimate Friday, July 4th was one of them.
The event started with a press conference which saw media personalities and artistes billed to perform at the event engaged in a see-saw question and answer session which was as animated as it was interesting. The MAMA, MTV Africa Music Awards, which comes up next Saturday in Durban, South Africa couldn’t have started on a brighter note with such pulsating tempo.
According to the organizers, the aim of this year’s event is to showcase the best of Africa to the rest of the world. Alex Okosi, Senior Vice President, MTV Networks Africa, puts it this way: “This year’s MAMA will be different because we have great partnerships to make this happen.
It will have talents across Africa, we are going to have the leadership award category and it’s going to be held in an amazing city, Durban South Africa. Of course, it’s going to be a great event”
DJ Xclusive served the anticipating music lovers a series of tunes before the concert kicked off at about 11.30pm.Yemi Alade, Lil Kesh, Patoraking, M.I, Iyanya, Reekado Banks, Korede Bello and Tanzania’s Diamond Platinum performed at the event. In no particular order, we take a look at the highs and the lows of that night.
That Lil Kesh off-colour performance
The Olamide protégé is undoubtedly one of the fastest growing young artistes in the industry right now. The youngster was dressed in a black shirt ready to thrill his fans. Unfortunately,his performance wasn’t above average. He was just hopping all over the stage.
It was suppose to be a performance,but all he ended up doing was just dancing around but with a little fervour to get the fans singing along, not because of the performance but for the song which got them enthralled. His crowning moment came when he kissed the hand of a female fan and when Phyno joined him on stage for the song Ladi
Patoranking on point again
Patrick Nnaemeka Okorie a.k.a Patoranking is fast building a reputation as a stage performer who knows the right ingredients to bring along to the table whenever is on show. At the ‘Road to MAMA concert’ the energetic singer scored another excellent mark. His presentation showed that he knows the mood of his fans and perfectly in tune with how to satisfy it.
Emotions ran high as he performed his hit songs like Alubarika, Emergency and Bora. And the crowd went from excited to wild when he switched to his new single My Woman my everything. They cheered and sang along with him. Patoranking had them eating out of his palms. Just when we thought Patoranking had outdone himself,M.I mounted the stage to perform Enemies,a song he featured Patoranking. It was one of the high points of the night.
Yemi Alade waves the magic wand again
Yemi Alade’s career has been on the up and up in recent times. And going by the performance of the Johnny sensation on the light it seems she’s going to be around for a long time. She was simply magical! It was as if she was waving a magic wand to which the fans could not help but dance along. For starters, she performed with a live band in an era where live music is fast becoming extinct.
She didn’t immediately mount the stage,her hypeman sang some songs to whet the appetite of the audience before she finally stepped out. Love or hate her,Yemi is gradually becoming the queen of Nigeria’s Afro pop. She came on stage propped up by her dancers chanting “Africa”.The vocal powerhouse performed some of her hit songs like Kissing and Taking over me among others. She harmonised seamlessly with her backup singers, her band and her dancers. The light-skinned diva is an amazing performer with a voice so hard o forget.
Iyanya refused to shine
*Iyanya in heat
Iyanya’s fans have always known him to be an energetic performer who delivers but the Kukere crooner disappointed all as he failed to live up to his lofty standard on the night. He performed some of his recent songs with the band but lacked the vigor needed to appeal to his fans.
His singing was off key, missed the beat and looked clueless on stage. Though he didn’t pull his black shirt to flaunt his abs, his saving grace was when he reached out into the crowd, brought out a young lady to dance with him and he eventually carried her. This act wowed the audience
Cowboy Phyno
The Alobam star, Phyno came on stage dressed like a cowboy. With his fresh David Beckham inspired hair-cut, he mounted the stage like he was ready to take over that night. The Obago crooner gave a confident delivery, flowing from one song to another.
That Mavin moment
The duo of Korede Bello and Reekado Banks proved that without the other members of the Mavin crew, they can still deliver a brilliant performance. The new Glo ambassadors ended the night by performing their individual songs like Godwin, Looku Looku and Adaobi. The rhythm of their performance changed when they performed the wave-making Godwin. The excitement was evident as the audience sang the song like their life depended on it.
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