Why Kenya Deserved Davido’s Performance.
Once again social media, particularly #KOT, is mad at someone for not meeting their expectations. Davido was in Kenya for the 5th Afrobeatz festival, and legions of his fans expected a stellar performance from the Nigerian star. Unfortunately this was not the case. His appearance on the trend was a sign that nothing was going to go well at the concert later, at least with regard to his performance. The Nigerian artist looked like a toddler forced to go to church on his birthday the entire time. Fidgeting all over the place and barely communicating with his interviewer Larry Madowo.
At his concert he was on stage for 20-30 minutes. Which as we can garner from a clip he posted online is barely enough time to get from your designated area, through the packed crowd to the rear and back. It’s been billed one of the worst performances Kenyan audiences have been subjected to and that’s counting one that ended in a near riot due to the booked artist not showing up. Why do we say that Kenya deserved such treatment? Because we’re ungrateful for what we already have, that’s why.
A tweet by @Rimbui perfectly encapsulates our sentiments. How many of you go to Live At The Elephant (L.A.T.E), pay a relatively low cover charge and enjoy great music from artists who appreciate your presence? If the cover charge is an issue how many show up for Thursday Night Live (T.N.L) at Choices which is free and happens every Thursday? How often do you request Kenyan music when DJs have request shows on the telly before you fall back into the old narrative of “Please play that Nigerian song whose words we can’t pronounce.” Maybe we’ll finally wake up and realise paying 8000 ksh for an artist who doesn’t appreciate you as his audience is plain stupid.
Hundreds of musicians be they solo artists or band members live here in Nairobi and here at UP we see at least four different concerts happening all over the city. However we also see that said concerts have low attendance numbers on Facebook because Nairobi residents would rather go to a whiskey bar that plays the occasional Jaguar song (and rarely serves whiskey.)
If we as a city and a country want artists to come here and give us good performances worth raving about on our varied social media accounts, then we need to start treating our own musicians like the stars they are. Ignoring homegrown talent then getting angry when someone from outside treats you like crap is unrealistic. We deserved that show he gave us, may his scorn for us wake us up.
paddy says:
Mate,i would rather attend any 30min of davido than our own local artists.The sad truth is our music apart from some blessed gems like sauti sol,g muliro,is not quality,is any kenyan music played in any other country apart from the few eg sauti sol.Our music sucks,our hiphop industry which started with kala mashaka the greats is now a laughing stock.
you have picked some few biased tweets,davido gave a bad perfomace but there was much more than that that night and its way better than our local musicians wt simple cheap beats and weird lyrics.
Carrey Francis says:
look at this nincompoop!
Kwame Bonsu says:
Haha Ronjay go easy on the truth. :’D
Ken-Albert says:
Yoh!!! There’s so much talent here in Nairobi! All the places that have been described, Thursday Night Live, Ricki na Marafiki Live, Live at the Elephant, the heck! How dare you say Kenyan music is low quality?
It’s because you are the type of people who only depend on radio for music. Look around before you dare pronounce Kenyan music as low quality!
Bro, there’s the cheap-beats-weird-lyrics jamaaz around, but there’s guitar choppin’, drum rolling, amazing vocals bands and performers around. Why they aren’t on radio is another topic… But yeah, just know that!
Lettioh says:
all the way with you paddy, the show was not 100 % but it was good,. I enjoyed it.loved it. Davido Juu !!!!!!!!
Sanna says:
Like the comment above by paddy, Kenyans don’t celebrate their own until they are “validated”. I mean look at Lupita. She wasn’t celebrated as an actress despite her brilliance on sugar (which for me was the first time I saw a performance by her) until hollywood validated how great an actress she is/beautiful and we jumped on it. The real question is not whether Kenyan music is played in other countries. I mean, it’s not even played in Kenya for it to make it outside the borders. Kenya has SICK artists with real talent, they are just not supported. It is not that there is lack of quality music but on the contrary, lack of quality support!
I concur with this article!
John says:
The only question you should ask yourself is why sauti soul and jaguar are receiving mssive support from fans and many other kenyan artistes are not. Do not expect me to support lost children like “Noti Flow” when nigeria is offering better quality music and videos.. m sorry but kizuri chagiuza kibaya chagitembeza. Kenyan music industry get ua act together don’t blame fans for not listening to ua music if u r not giving them what they want.
John says:
The only question you should ask yourself is why sauti soul and jaguar are receiving massive support from kenyans and many other kenyan artistes are not. Do not expect me to support lost children like “Noti Flow” when nigeria is offering better quality music that is more pleasant to the ear and memorable.. I am sorry but kizuri chajiuza kibaya chajitembeza. Kenyan music industry get your act together don’t blame fans for not listening to your music if you are not giving them what they want.
Ken-Albert says:
Well, the “chema chajiuza kibaya chajitembeza” proverb doesn’t exactly apply in the music business, and even for any other business for that matter. You only know Sauti Sol now because they are on radio and TV, but you don’t know how long they “jitembezad” first before they got to where they are.
Fans in Kenya are generally reluctant to go for the live gigs, which FYI, are where the talent lies (for sure). Anyway, we can’t force people to leave their daily schedules, but when we (live performers) finally go to studio, the disappointing music will be kicked out… Very soon.
Carrey Francis says:
you are right Sanna. That Paddy should be “paded” by Kidero.
kevin says:
nigeria musicians have the ability and capacity to make good quality music because it all starts with the local nigerian listening and supporting the nigerian act. this means they have more financial support at their disposal and therefore they can afford to hire good quality machines to produce the music and also import highly skilled producers from abroad to work with them. so the support comes from the people to the musician. the case in kenya is the opposite though with people like paddy up there
lukawanjohi says:
The comments will kill me. We have a long way to go if we have someone spelling chagiuza and chajitembeza…we must learn how to love what’s ours. I visit Nigeria a lot and folks love everything Nigerian. The media is full of Nigerian productions: Movies, music,etc. What we get to see as outsiders is a highly refined product, thanks to healthy and stiff competition back home. We have to start from somewhere.
Megan says:
Good point Adam! I agree, I am so surprised how many of my Kenyan friends don’t know some of their very own best musicians and are not that interested in going to see the play. It seems like sometimes it’s more about going places to see and be seen rather than about the music
Sam Kiranga says:
I agree. Some Kenyans are lame. They perpetuate the idea that our music is poor and expect it to get better. Music is energy. The more attention you give a musician the more attention he gives you and your taste. If you ignore him then you only have yourself to blame. The best you can do is be objective and say what is wrong with his songs like they did with Willy Paul’s Missi. Now he has a couple of more hits after learning how NOT to write lyrics. Saying beats are cheap doesn’t make a musician better. In the meantime get ready to spend all your hard earned money on lame performances from the so called “better Nigerian artistes.” who don’t give a damn about you.
alex teenace says:
people say kenyan music is not quality well if i may ask what is this QUALITY TO YOU..WHAT IS QUALITY ..thats a lame excuse from producers to deejays ..well they say at your homeland you may nat be accepted no wonder jaguar does his vides in other countries so he be accepted at home as he has turned foreighn from home #word
Terry says:
Id rather attend a listening session for davido’s music than a 1hr gig for a kenyan musician..that shows the path most of our kenyan musicians took which makes us most people pay 10k for a nigerian artist than 300 for a kenyan artist
okaka Felix says:
Sarabi…carol atemi..octopizzo…winyo..Nina ogot..just a band ..LELE ngoma…
p unit…
really…that comment on Kenya not having good quality music is OLD…attend a concert and be schooled
Martin says:
Wakenya tuko na kasumba sana. Ugandans rarely play that so called “quality” Nigerian music. Same thing with the Tanzanians. And they don’t care whether their songs are played on channel O or not. Back in the day when madtraxx was new on the zone and redsan was churning tunes no one listened to oga music, we played our own. Our quality hasn’t gone down, it’s our self-love
Adam Maina says:
Some Kenyan Acts Are Worth Such A Fee But Some Aren’t Worth It.
Also We Can’t Just Sit Here & Claim We Shouldn’t Listen To Nigerian Music Coz It’s Not By Our Own. If Someone Has Talent Appreciate It, Listen To It & Pay For Their Concert No Matter The Country. It’s All Music & Standard Matters. Kenyans Like Sauti Sol Can Ask For Even The 8k & So Should Davido & Wizkid, They All Give Quality Music. So Give Kenyans Quality Music & we’ll support it.
Machel says:
The thing is… Kenyans we are always full of ourselves. We want to compare ourselves with the best, be it Americans, Europeans, Nigerians, SouthAfricas… Heck, even Jamaicans. We need to appreciate ourselves more. Believe we have it in ourselves. We have been aping these ”others” for too long. Look at Ugandans… They love Jose Chameleon sooo much that people like Redsan who when they started, were at par but now as much as we celebrate Redsan… Fact is they are miles apart because Ugandan media stations play almost 70% Baganda music. Compare that to Kenyans measly or practically less than 20% local content. On the other hand our Nigerian brodas are doing 80%. The buck starts with you… Stop requesting, downloading, playing and praising international music too much. The more local content is played in our media stations the more money the local artist gets to improve his/her/their quality. CHARITY BEGINS AT HOME #playKEmusic
Ray says:
I agree as fans we should support local production but the buck doesn’t just start with us! How about artists start supporting each other too! start networking with other artistes to increase your fan base! Producer’s should start giving talented individuals record deals too so we can stop this issue of guys not being able to get their music out because they can’t afford to record. Finally, Radio stations should just stop playing a few artistes songs and increase their playlist! Seriously its like there’s just a small blacklist out there if your not part of no matter how good your songs are you just won’t get airplay! That crap is messed up and is killing local talent in Kenya. There are lots of great underground records which are available but I’ve never heard them get airplay on any local radio station; despite these artistes getting their demo tapes out to several radio stations. Personally am tired of listening to local radio stations anymore! They never play anything new. Same ol playlist from the same ol artistes every freaking day.
kristin says:
I don’t think this line of argument is convincing or very good. First, local competition (Nigerian music and movies) should help our local artists up their game. Secondly, what does a poor performance by a popular artist have to do with local artists? Thirdly, enjoying foreign music and enjoying local music are not mutually exclusive. Finally, I get the feeling that local artists are not as easily accessible as foreign popstars, maybe because of the locations they choose to perform, the marketing they do and airtime they get
Georgie says:
I think of myself as a musician in my own right (drummer), and to see what my people think of me and my fellow musicians is really hurtful. Guys have no ideas how many hours of practise it takes for you to put a gig together- then for someone to come and say it was crap. In the few years I have been observing the industry, I must say that we have properly talented musicians…and maybe that’s where the problem lies…these really talented guys play “music for musicians”. It will take time for them to get appreciated by the masses because they don’t play “pop” music. I am not discounting the fact that we have musicians who haven’t done their homework, in fact such are the type who are propagating the stereotype that “Mziki ya Kenya inasuck”…And someone talked about us comparing ourselves with the best…I say yes, you are supposed to aim to beat the best-and then you can look inward and compete with yourself because you are the best….and Kenyan musicians, let’s not mind the haters…let’s aim to be the best on the international stage as well….let’s not close our minds off from learning. Get all the material from all over and learn it, then flip it and make it your own Music is life
Adam Maina says:
Additional to my earlier sentiments, Nigeria boast of like one umbrella genre of music, Aftobeats. What about Kenya? each artist has his/her own genre. First they should unite so that we support them.
Megan says:
Adam Maina. You’re right, because having diversity is bad and overloads our simple minds. How dare they be creative and express themselves I’m different ways! We only want ONE MUSIC! ! !
Kaleche says:
Let’s face it, I would rather pay a lot go watch some quality Nigerian musician perform with original African authencity than go watch a Kenyan musician whose a one hit wonder and wants to behave like some American Hiphop artist…Nigerians, Tanzanias and Ugandans are quite consistent and original. You don’t expect me to go pay a fortune for someone who has some lyrics that doesn’t make sense….I would count the number of Kenyan musicians whose music makes sense…for instance Jaguar, sauti sol , just a band, and a few other new bees….But as long as we have mediocre music we all shall be happy to pay hefty prices for foreign musicians
okaka felix says:
you say mediocre Kenyan music @kaleche…let’s head tomorrow to the MJ Centre tomorrow from 7 to 9..listen to LELE Ngoma and We officially close this argument…its a paltry 500/- but its enough to make you stop crying naija this.. mediocre Kenyan music that…Kenyans we are so escapist.. stations like Nation FM should move to Nigeria… soooo much quality Kenyan music..
LELE Ngoma..inka..elani..sarabi..mutinda..winyo..Nina ogot..atemi oyungu..Eric wainaina..chizi..Valerie Kimani.. punit..octopizzo..sauti Sol…khaligraph..viola karuri..villagers band…Dela.. didge .kaz..kanji. fena gitu..xtatic.STL.take your pick…I can go on and on
Gordy says:
our industry is just corrupt,the real talent dont get to see the light of day,you have to pay the radio hosts n tv shows to get your song played,its also high time our musicians started doing more songs with content n positive messages,we should stop with the party banger’s mikono juu ya hewa,stuff,lyrics so predictable you can finish the song…