Coming off the heels of losing his artist Dammy Krane to Davido’s Nigerian label DMW Worldwide, 2Face is in the news again. This time, it is as a result of a poorly executed concert in Rwanda that allegedly attracted less than 50 fans. Since the story broke days ago, all have asked why a living contemporary music legend like 2Face would attract less than 50 people to his event.
Of course there have been finger-pointing. One explanation is that the marketing and promotions for the event was poorly executed. The other is that the overall planning of the event, from 2Face’s manager Efe Omoregbe to the Rwanda entertainment company who requested 2Face’s services, was poorly executed.
Those may very well be valid reasons. However, I do believe there is another possibility worth considering: the current stage of 2Face’s career as an artist. I think a careful look at where 2Face is, at this time, might help him better position his brand and avoid situations like these. Of course, the requisite planning and right partnerships must be in place. Indeed, I recall some years back when Omoregbe planned ‘The United Sounds of Africa tour’ and teamed up with the wrong partners, yielding in an embarrassing concert/tour flop, and an alleged loss of $90,000 by Jason Njoku/IROKO, a sponsor for the event.
In any event, focusing on this case, the obvious question is, has 2Face reached the declining stage of his career as an artist where he is unable to sell out venues like he used to? Whether a Nigerian or American artist, there is a product life cycle for every musician. Product life cycles are broken into:
- The development stage: when the artist is still trying to attract label attention.
- Introduction stage: where the artist breaks into the music business.
- Growth stage: where the artist gains notoriety, rapidly grows fan base and is wanted by almost every brand, and promoter.
- Maturity stage: where the artist is established and diversifies her streams of income to include endorsements, sponsorships, book deals, touring, merchandising, television, film etc.
- Decline stage: where the artist tours less, sells less music, loses endorsements/sponsorships, no longer sells out venues and must begin thinking about what is next for her career.
Do note, as we have seen, that a Nigerian artist in the maturity stage of the product life cycle can begin all over again in a new market. For example, the likes of Davido and Wizkid are now in the introduction stage of the music business for the U.S. market given their Sony deals. This in turn affects the life cycle of the actual product (the music) that they release into the market.
If you have followed this blog closely, then you know and should at this point understand my argument that Davido, particularly, as an artist in the growth/maturity stage of the music business in Africa with a strong reach in the African diaspora; should be handled differently. I argue that while it is instinctive for Sony to treat him like they would any other artist in the introduction stage in the U.S. market, they must strike the right balance so they maintain sales and interest in his product from his existing fans that are currently his main source of income.
Back to 2Face. Today the hottest Nigerian artists range from age 19-25years old. Their fans are about the same demographic or younger. While their fans may be familiar with 2Face, I don’t know that 2Face’s songs as sweet and wonderful as they are; are compelling for that demographic to show up and fill concert venues.
Therefore, the planning, the right team and activating 2Face’s fan clubs to possibly presell tickets matters greatly. One thing we haven’t done in Nigeria and Africa’s music business is activate our fan clubs. 2Face, Efe Omoregbe and the Hypertek music team have work to do.
Something caused the very low turn out at the Rwandan concert, and while 2Face might be happy to play to 50 fans because he genuinely values each fan, he does have to worry about the decline of the dollars/naira/pounds that feeds his family.
-Ms. Uduak
“For the first time in over 10 years, Nigeria pop legend, 2face Idibia returned to Rwandato headline a concert on September 23, 2016 at the Kigali Serena Hotel.
The event was 2face Idibia’s second time in the country after his first visit in 2006 but it wasn’t as memorable as he anticipated.
2face Idibia’s vistit to Rwanda comes on the heels of Wizkid’s sold out concert in the country back in August and P-Square’s sold out gig in 2012.
Rwandans on social media complained bitterly of lack of proper promotion for the concert which led to an all time low of less than 50 attendees.” –TheNet.ng has the full story.
I find it very pathetic to see them blaming “poor management” or “poor promotion” for this debacle. Again, I’ve been saying for years that these nostalgic feelings that Nigerians hold for artists of yesteryear needs to stop. 2face doesn’t have a single record that that could get serious radio airplay or club spins in 2016. And that “African Queen” song is garbage, let’s be honest. So I’m not surprised that his shows would be empty, because he’s irrelevant. I wish people would stop lying to themselves and to him, so he can move on with his life and go to South Africa to pretend-DJ with D’banj.
@Winston, I disagree that the ‘African Queen’ song is garbage. Before Davido got a sync deal with Disney, there was 2Face’s song serving it up with Phat Girlz. The movie may not have been huge but 2Face has trailblazed over and over again.
@Uduak, Inclusion on the “Phat Girlz” soundtrack is not really anything an artist should brag about. I mean, really, who actually saw that movie?
Also, I kinda understand the sentiment behind the support of the song, due to the lack of pop music that uplifted African women at the time of its release. But in 2016 , ‘African Queen’ simply doesn’t hold up, in my opinion. An actual line in the song is “You make my heart go ding-a-ling-a ling.” That’s classic songwriting? Really?
As an alternative, I would suggest your readers revisit Korede Bello’s criminally-overlooked 2014 release, ‘African Princess’. It’s a much better song, and still accomplishes the task of placing our African women on the pedestal of which they deserve to be placed.