Multiple award winning and celebrated Ghanaian Dj – DJ Mensah – has joined the discourse on social media as to how Ghanaian artists are going to achieve the new set goal – filling the O2 Arena.
The Ghanaian media in the past few days have reported on the success of Davido at the O2 Arena. This came after the Nigerian star had managed to pull and thrill a crowd above 15,00 to fill the 20,000 capacity. This success story has compelled a lot of industry players to question why Ghanaian artists with all their talents and hype have been unable to achieve this goal.
Many have blamed the structures in the industry, others blame the media, but a large number of the opinion table believe that it’s a game of numbers.
Well, the renowned Dj took to instagram to share his thoughts on the trending issue. In a single post, Dj Mensah explained why it will be difficult for Ghanaian artists to fill the O2 Arena. According to the award winning Dj, it might take up to 10 Ghanaian musicians to achieve what it took a single Nigerian artist to achieve.
He also added that Ghanaian bloggers and the media in general succumb to negative news hence fail to promote the creative side of the artist here in Ghana.
He wrote: I have been reading from some blogs, whether any Ghanaian artist can fill up the O2 and suggestions that Gh Artists come together to push Gh music so as to fulfill that dream which is becoming the major challenge now for our Gh artists. Obviously the O2 is the new benchmark now in accessing the clout and prowess of African artist?
This question of if indeed a Gh artist can really sell out the O2 arena has also and always been one of my internal deliberations. Even if we should bring ten (10) of our top artists, are we going to get 20,000 Ghanaians and non Ghanaians to buy tickets worth £50 and above to attend such concerts? What is the depth of investment in Gh music on the int. front?
I stand to be corrected, but I think the largest crowd ever pulled by a Ghanaian artist in the UK was the filling of the 4,000 capacity Briston Academy, now Briston O2 in 1994 which saw Kojo Antwi and Daddy Lumba performing on same stage.
The recent we’ve tried is the O2 indigo, which is a 2,600max capacity.I leave you to do the maths.
Congratulation to Wizkid and Davido for filling up the O2 Arena. The thing with Nigerian is, in every aspect of business, there is always one person who breaks certain barrier goes in and leaves one foot in the door way, keeps the channel open to allow other Nigerians in. no one is left behind.
But what do we see in motherland Ghana?
I have been to Nigeria on few occasion and its amazing to see the love and respect young artist accord the seniors.
The sad aspect is how the core focus of majority of our bloggers is on negative stories and headlines, ignoring completely to bring to light the hard work some folks are putting in to push up the industry. SMH.
Whiles promoters are determine to push our music to outer frontiers; artists see that as an opportunity to over-price themselves, thus thwarting the efforts of these promoters.
Considering the fact that the O2 Arena has or is fast becoming the yard stick in the clout and prowess of the African Artist, the big question remain…how are we going to fill up (Sell out) the O2 Arena?
I think we need all stake holders,investors music of int. standards, gud promoters, quality videos, int.links & UNITY.
DJ Mensah’s post on Instagram
