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We need wow events in Ghana

With the much-hyped Tigo Ghana Meets Naija around the corner, what can Ghanaians and Nigerians expect from the event? Here is my open letter on why I think we need more 'wow moments' with our events.

 

Throughout the years I have attended many big events, and I as we have grown to have more programs on the entertainment calendar each year, we are sparsely hit with the wow factor at events. Often we see the same artists doing the same things from one event to the other, and especially in the Christmas season it gets terribly monotonous.

We have come a long way and while our events may have gotten bigger in terms of staging, lighting, LED screen effects etc., I find out that these often compliment the shows but the real excitement lies in the content of the shows. Even the way artists on the bill are lined-up to perform can peak the excitement in the show if well scripted or choreographed. People have used different yardsticks including the performance of the artists to determine the success of a show. While it is hugely subjective what makes a good performance ( i.e. is it the crowd response? Is it performing live? Is it the artistry of the performer? Or is it how long an artist is able to perform on stage?), I believe a quality performance and well produced content are elements each major event should have.

The biggest offenders are award shows in Ghana. Most awards shows run like they don’t have a director running the production. It appears anything goes and anyone can get on stage to do whatever he or she pleases. No wonder award shows run for many hours (that is even if we overlook the late start). From start to finish, there should be a script with room for little excesses and surprises that would add to the highlights of the event, and not the other way round. The choice of the compere, DJ and any other person who is a link between performances/activities is also very important. What they do or say must be well structured to fit the production in terms of timing and relevance.

Packing all the biggest artists in the world on one stage doesn’t make it the best show in the world. Yes, it may sell tickets but it may end with dissatisfied and disgruntled patrons because they couldn’t have their monies’ worth. Sometimes it is the little things that go a long way to leave a mark on people. It been about two months and I can hardly remember any big highlights from this year’s Ghana Music Awards. As terrible as the Ghana Movie Awards may seem in parts, at least the organizers go an extra mile to try and leave us with big highlights. Last year, they got leading actors to sing to open the show (yes, I agree it’s been a similar concept in the last two editions and we need something else, but at least they tried).

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So imagine if the Ghana Music Awards got top musicians to record and perform a special song for Castro during the 2015 VGMA instead of playing back messages from industry people on the night (and well, some long and boring performances that we have seen over and over again) – wouldn’t that have been a wow moment? What if the Tigo Ghana Meets Naija concert closes with an exclusive major collaboration between all or some of the Ghanaian and Nigerian Artists? Wouldn’t that also be a wow moment? We need creative talking points from events; enough of the dancing of Azonto on stage to win phones!!!

I think it’s about time our events stopped running like a secondary school entertainment show where people walk on stage one by one to perform and leave. It is getting boring! Of course I would like to talk about the time for starting and ending shows but ‘me sef I know’ – we are Ghanaians (Laugh out loud). Let me know what you think also and share some ideas on how you think events in Ghana could be better.

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