By Tosyn Bucknor
As we celebrate NET and the second Nigerian Entertainment Conference, here are ten things we should be talking about:
10. Why female artistes have to work twice as hard to get half the accolades: Don’t argue, don’t fight it, accept it. The girls just wanna have fun but the industry has them working harder than the guys, and getting less recognition.
9. Why fans pay lip service to what they call ‘good music’: If I see one more tweet about someone who prefers the old Iyanya to the ‘Kukere’ Iyanya, I’ll chew my hair! Come on folks, we keep repeating ourselves. If you think something is good music, then support it as much as you support what’s actually popular!
8. Why we spend more time criticising what we don’t like than praising what we do: It’s the same energy it takes to criticise that it takes to promote, so think about it. Before you tweet how much you dislike A B or C, why not tweet how much you like X Y or Z? #JustAThought
7. Why people don’t learn that the biggest sin in entertainment is… Taking a break: Seen it all the time, home and abroad. People will forgive you for not churning out albums or being in movies, as long as you stay visible and in the game. But take a break and they will forget you. You come back and the rules have changed so much that you don’t even know where to start from. Pause, jog, cycle, walk, but don’t stop.
6. Why pirates started selling Tunde Kelani’s ‘Maami’ before it was even released?: I mean! It’s frustrating. Why do people have to work so hard only to see their work distributed illegally for N100. And we say Naija’s problem is PDP. Okay o!
5. Why we don’t believe in the danger of a single story: Okay Nollywood, we accept your point. The things you talk about do happen in real life. Yes, ghosts sweat and take calls. BUT, can you accept our own point? That Nigeria has several stories so we should tell all kinds? Please? Thank you.
4. Why we keep shooting videos in South Africa with people trying hard to pretend they are Nigerians. We don’t believe you. You guys can’t fool us. If you want to shoot a video in South Africa, do that. But don’t try to pretend it was shot in Nigeria. #JustSaying
3. Why our small screen is neglected: Big screen, be it commercial or arty movies, is well represented. But who’s paying attention to the small screen? Who’s rewarding the actors, writers and directors of television shows? Let’s do this!
2. Why we don’t have talent managers in Nigeria: Can we talk about this please? Why are all the managers only working with artistes. What about people who write, who dance, who are ‘products’?
There’s a whole world out there waiting to be explored and I think more managers should think of managing talent not just artistes.
1. Why DJ Caise hasn’t asked me out yet #JustCurious.
