By Dayo Farore
Makers of popular French cognac, Hennessy are set stage the fifth edition of the popular yearly experimental collaborative event ‘Hennessy Artistry‘.
According to the organisers, Hennessy Artistry is a premium innovation that celebrates the ‘art of blending’ by bringing together different music genres and the cool, luxury life style associated with the Hennessy brand.
The Communication Manager of Hennessy in Nigeria, Tokini Peterside in a press release made available to Nigerian Entertainment Today (NET) stated, ‘this year’s Hennessy Artistry is going to surpass the previous years. We’re working with some of the best urban music artistes in Nigeria today, and we will announce soon officially, who these artistes will be… Hennessy Cognac started Hennessy Artistry as a means of celebrating urban music culture. It is also an initiative that allows us to reward consumers of the brand with access to entertaining projects in the music space’.
The 2010 edition which was tagged, ‘Like a Bottle‘, featured notable Nigerian acts like Nneka, M.I, Bez, Ice Prince and Shina Peters. The diverse group of Nigerian musicians came together to compose, record and perform the song ‘Like a Bottle’ which was produced by Kas. The artistes also took part in a music video and headlined a grand finale concert at the GET Arena in Lagos.
The year before, 2009, rapper Ice Prince emerged the winner in a Hennessy Artistry live band contest, over other talents like Mo’cheddah, Bez, Blaise
The aim of the event which premiered in 2007, Peterside says, is to celebrate and blend different music genres in several countries across the world. Hennessy Artistry is famed as a global music campaign that promotes the art of mixing various genres and blending the talents of the world’s best artistes.
There are already widespread speculation on who the lead talents for this year’s edition would be. Sources say it could be a competition between EME acts (Banky W, Wizkid and Skales) and Chocolate City cats (M.I, Ice Prince, Jesse Jagz and Brymo).