#TGMN: Detail Report of Tigo Ghana Meets Naija, 2015 -THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY

The 5^th Edition of Tigo Ghana Meets Naija took place last week Saturday, May 23; click on this link in case you missed out on the photos. Here is the detailed report as to what really transpired on the night. 

BLUE CARPET

The blue carpet went on well with all its glamour and endless razzmatazz. The Paparazzi and all the

shades of the media feasted on popular guests and those who pretended not to be stars were tactfully ignored. 

ROLL CALL & ATTENDANCE     

The event witnessed massive attendance by the crème- de la- crème of the society, the media, the general public among others. It was a sold out concert, no two ways. Because of how various bloggers were contacted to help with publicity, you could clearly see that the bloggers did not fail to execute their job at all. Even one (1) week before the event proper, tickets were already out of the system, and as at 6:30pm, the foyer had already been occupied by lots of patron. Massive crowd and responsive audience! Big ups to all the bloggers who promoted the 2015 edition of Tigo Ghana Meets Naija.

NII AYI TAGOE ON THE WHEEL OF STEELS

It was advertised times without number that Dj Black will be the man behind the turntables and as well he will be Mcing the concert only for the concert to start with Nii Ayi Tagoe suddenly taken over Dj Black’s job. What really accounted for the change of Dj? The organizers need to tell us something. It was how Dj Black thrilled at last year’s edition that the organizers thought it wise not to include any Mc at this year’s edition.

Nii Ayi Tagoe on the night did not bring his A-game to bear; his coordination with the audience wasn’t the best, his energy level wasn’t the best as compared to what he did at last year’s edition where he rocked the Foyer of AICC to come alive and turned it into a night hub. But yes, the organizers are to blame for this. May be he was contacted some few hours to the show and as well the running order of the show did not give Nii Ayi Tagoe even 2 minutes to entertain the patrons to the best of mixes on the night.

PERFORMANCES

The concert kicked off around 9:38pm with Nero X, Gallaxy, Dobble, Keche, Ruff n Smooth, MzVee took their turn to show off what they were made of. The only problem here was that how can the organizers allow all these acts to mount the stage to perform and just only Seyi Shay from Nigeria was there to battle them. How? 6 against 1? How on earth is that possible? It was just not fair to the Nigerian side.

Again, the running order on the night needs to be given a second look by the organizers of the concert. You made us in the known that the concert more or less will be a battle and to establish supremacy between Ghana and Nigeria; how can you pair a Ghanaian act with another Ghanaian act to battle for supremacy at Ghana Meets Naija concert? Mind you, the concert is not Ghana Meets Ghana concert.

Also, the organizers made 9 Ghanaian acts to mount the stage before the Nigerian acts started with their performances. With this running order, they kept the Nigerians who had attended the concert to see their own people perform wait till 1:42am before they saw their artistes perform. Some got angry about this and had to leave the auditorium without seeing their acts they had paid Ghc 150.00 or Ghc 100.00 perform. Those who left may be thinking what if there were more Ghanaian artistes to perform before they finally catch a glimpse of their own people on stage?

Main Acts from Ghana

There was absolutely nothing wowing, nothing spectacular about the three (3) Ghanaian acts who mounted the stage; no showmanship, nothing like creativity, absolutely there was just nothing at all that any patron who attended the concert would write home about, would point out with their performances or in the course of their performances as stunning, mesmerizing or just mind-blowing on the night. 

At the 2014 Edition, one can at least vividly recall the Holy Spirit baptism of that lady during Sarkodie’s performance, the collection moment when basket was passed around during Adonai performance. At the 2013 edition which was headlined by Samini, almost all the acts who mounted the stage came with something different that caught ones attention; at least almost all the acts had dancers who exhibited great choreography on the night. Samini, Okyeame Kwame did live band performances, I hope you can still remember what happened when Amanda Jissih tried carrying Okyeame Kwame. What’s memorable about this year’s concert, that Shatta Wale removed his clothes and footwear or just what?

Just look at the Nigerians. It was clearly seen by all that they indeed prepared for the night. They were in for business and they meant business. All of them exhibited some kind of artistry on stage and they interpreted their performances extremely well; they coordinated themselves so well. Look at that of Reekado Banks getting married on stage, that of Di’ja and her dancers, Korede Bello’s performance, indeed, ‘naija no dey carry last’ as they’ve been saying.

Apart from Sarkodie who brought not all that his A-Game on stage, both Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy gave a stupefaction kind of performance; it could clearly be seen that both were just ill-prepared for the concert.

Shatta Wale started the battle for Ghana; he made his entry from the crowd. Shatta Wale mounted the stage at exactly 11:28pm and just less than 10 minutes of performance, he started finding it very difficult to control his breathe. As usual, it was just shouting and running around the stage kind of performance. Shatta’s major problem on the night got to do with his breathe control and the arrangement of his songs. Still I repeat, his performance was just the ordinary one some we’ve all these while witnessed. He ended his performance around 11:57pm.

No sooner had Shatta Wale done with his performance than rapper Sarkodie took over. The crowd who had been in anticipation went wild upon sighting their favourite star. Being a star with a lot of hit tracks, performing for an hour was not a problem; the fans couldn’t just have enough of this gifted act. What a performance it was! …to say the least, his performance was just one cracker of a performance. So many people enjoyed standing and dancing throughout. You can’t go wrong with Sarkodie, he outshined and outperformed the rest of his Ghanaian counterparts but since two heads are better than one, he wasn’t able to save Ghana on the night.

One problem was that he kept too long on stage and at a point the crowd felt like, yoo you’ve done enough, get off the stage and let others continue, so they started been irresponsive. He ended his performance at exactly 12:57am.

Just when AICC thought it has seen it all, sang it all, danced it all, then came on stage, 2015 BET Awards nominee, Stonebwoy.  As a result of how Stonebwoy has of late rocked various stages to the best; VGMAs 2015, his own concerts; both at the Tema Sports Stadium and at the Trade Fair Centre, the organizers thought it wise to made him round off the concert and as well, the crowd was expecting him to even deliver more than Sarkodie.

But did that happen? No it did not. He did his karaoke kind of performance; his voice as usual was just unique. His major problem got to do with too much talking in between his performance so he started losing focus, went off key awhile and as well he had his set list wrong this time around. The crowd was hyperactive and don’t need his talk-talk, just deliver and get off the stage. At 2013 edition of GMN, he came on stage with the same haircut like that of this year, even with just 10 minutes of performance, he brought the best out of himself. Indeed, he left lot of patrons disappointed with his delivery on the night. He ended his performance around 1:38am.

NIGERIAN ACTS;

The Mavins crew one after the other did one thing or the other keeping everyone’s eyes glued to the stage. They organized themselves so well, it can clearly be seen that they rehearsed extremely well for the concert. At first, they did not have the audience appeal, but from one act to the other, they kept capturing the minds of the patrons and eventually, they warmed their way into the hearts of patrons. Stage craft, showmanship, costume, what more can you say about these Nigerian acts… The Mavins started their individualistic performance by Reekado Banks, to Korede Bello, to Di’ja, D’prince, Dr. Sid, and then Don Jazzy. After this, they did a group performance of Looku looku, Adaobi and crowned it all with Dorobucci at exactly 3:26am. Indeed they would have whipped, thrashed and done great damage to the Ghanaian side had sexy Tiwa Savage perform.

CONCLUSION

All in all, it was a groundbreaking show but not compared to the previous years though. Security level was ok, the ushers were very friendly, the beautiful set design, the lighting systems, the quality sound on the night were indeed taken care of, and Empire Entertainment has indeed taken event organizing in Ghana, a notch higher. Big ups

Source: Evershed Shola Amekor|www.bigtriceonline.blogspot.com