STAR TREK: Benin stands still for D’banj

By Olamide Jasanya

The ancient city of Benin rocked on the night of Friday, June 9, 2012, as Star Trek brought a host of stars to the Stonefield Events Arena. The arena played host to the music lovers who came out to honour the stars that came to perform.

While some waited patiently for the show to begin, others walked about and a few got in the groove with tunes from DJ Switch‘s turntable. After two hours of waiting, the show kicked off with Gideon Okeke of Tinsel fame as host.

The young host started with a dance competition, which gave its three winners a slot in the VIP section. This was followed by another round of music which lasted for 45 minutes, after which he gave the line-up of artistes for the night, mentioning Crystals, MAVIN songstress, Tiwa Savage, highlife singer Flavour, Sound Sultan and D’banj, among others.

New Faces at the Benin Edition

Not only did the fifth leg of the Trek happen in a new city, Benin, it had a new host and paraded a new set of artistes for this year’s edition. Dbanj, Sound Sultan, Tiwa Savage, and Flavour have not been on the list since the 2012 Star Trek began in May 2012, and will all be performing in subsequent shows before the trek ends later in the month.

Upcoming artistes open the floor

At exactly 12:30 am, the host introduced the first performer, Butuparly. BMG came up next; thrilling the audience with a variety of songs, keeping them clapping and singing all through his 20-minute performance. Other upcoming artistes followed suit, including KMC, who sang a song praising the state governor, Adams Oshiomhole. KMZY was next, followed by C2C, TYM, Great DFoctor and then BMG was called on again for another performance. Lady ViVi, Brayz, Angel Bouncing and a few others also engaged the stage until after 1:00 am when the 2012 Star

Quest winners, Crystals, came up with a performance of Amerie‘s ‘1 thing‘ and Beyonce‘s ‘Baby Boy‘ before signing out.

Tiwa Savages opens the Show and Turns Philanthropist

After what seemed like a silent revolt from the audience caused by what might be considered over stretched anticipation, MAVIN Records signee Tiwa Savage entered at 1:27 am to her ‘Oma ga‘ single and continued with Psquare‘s ‘Do as I do‘, getting the audience to dance and sway along. Excitedly, she asked to be helped off the stage and closer to the audience.

Once down, Tiwa continued with tracks such as ‘Kele kele‘ and ‘Love me love me‘. She then announced a dance competition, promising a sum of N10,000 for the best Azonto dancer. Immediately, a guy and a girl took up the challenge, but after the competition, Tiwa split the money between the two, as she couldn’t decide the winner.

She continued again with ‘Oma ga‘ and pulled off her shoes to end her twenty-two minute performance with the Don Jazzy featured ‘Without my heart‘

Tiwa Savage Honours Victims of the Dana Plane Crash

After setting a happy mood with her entrance, Tiwa cut short her lively performance to sing ‘Great is thy faithfulness‘, dedicating it to the families and friends of the victims of the unfortunate Dana plane crash of Sunday, June 3, 2012. The choice of song allowed her display her vocal dexterity, for which she was applauded.

Sound Sultan Was Next

Sound Sultan entered the stage with a little drama, singing from the green room and causing confusion amongst photographers who thought he had caught them off guard and mounted the stage.

The drama was followed by the live performance of some of his hit tracks including ‘Motherland‘, ‘2010‘, ‘Orobo‘, ‘Oko won lode‘. His performance of ‘Gengen‘ got him a loud ovation from the audience as they sang along. To perform his ‘Orobo‘ track, the soft-spoken artiste brought two plus-sized women and asked that they dance with him. He eventually left at 2:30AM allowing his colleague and friend, Flavour, take over.

Flavour pleased the crowd with his popular ‘Oyi‘ track, among other high life tracks from his album. The singer, like his fellow performer Tiwa Savage, honoured the Dana plane crash victims, as well as his late friend, Mc Loph, dedicating a song to him before retiring at 3:20AM.

D’banj Celebrates 32nd Birthday on Star Trek Stage in Benin

After Flavour’s performance, the atmosphere had gotten charged up and no other artiste could have continued with that tempo except for the long awaited D’banj, and just like magic, he showed up at 3:28 am with unarguably the most dramatic entry.

D’banj, who turned 32 on the day, did not hide his excitement as he constantly announced to the audience that it was his birthday. As a gift, he asked that he be allowed to give himself a good treat, which included a ‘kokolet’. He soon asked for another, blaming it on his ‘Oliver Twist’ nature.

The G.O.O.D Music artiste had the most overwhelming response from audience as he once again proved he was indeed an entertainer. On stage with him were his younger brother, Kay Switch and rapper, Ikechukwu.

D’banj’s 50 minute performance had all the energy expected of an artiste of his calibre and had the audience asking for more. He performed hits such as ‘Endowed‘, D’Prince’s ‘Give it to me‘, ‘Scape goat‘, Ikechukwu’s ‘Wind am well‘, and ended with a grand performance of ‘Oliver Twist‘.

D’banj and Sound Sultan Go Live

The duo of D’banj and Sound Sultan blew the minds of the audience with their outstanding performances, not because of the energy they performed with, but also because of the live band they featured, which showed their musical prowess as they not only controlled the audience, but did same for their band members. However, while Sound Sultan had only one female as back up singer, D’banj had three.

D’banj Honours Kanye West

D’banj, whose performance had the best applause, could not contain his joy and respect for his label boss, Kanye West. After a few minutes of his performance, he unzipped his jacket, revealing a little picture of

Kanye West drawn on the shirt. Minutes later, he totally pulled off the shirt, and the undershirt had a picture of Kanye on it, with his name in full written on the back.