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African pop stars and idols - the change of the guard?

Pop competitions have been the craze lately over the world after the success of American idol. Various countries have established pop contests that are supposed to groom more entertainers and Africa has not been left behind. Many corporate entities have joined the bandwagon and musicians have chipped in as judges as well. Tusker, Kenya's favourite beer is supporting East Africa's Project Fame. Blu3 is a popular rhythm and blues group that has benefitted from this, particularly Uganda's Coca cola real stars competition which has also been expanded to cover all of East Africa.

Blu3 has used the euphoria and fan base they gained from their contest success to launch a thriving music career. Their first singles, Hitaji and Frisky enjoyed a lot of airplay in Uganda and they even got nominated for best East African group at Africa's most prestiguous music awards, the Koras as well as MNET Channel O's video music awards. They have performed in Ghana, Rwanda and Tanzania as well. They also impressed with their stagecraft , choreography and lyrics.

Their debut album had hits like Hitaji and Frisky which helped them gain the award nominations. Hitaji is a song in Swahili which means 'need' and has a good video. Their second album, Burn has received rave reviews and features musicians from other African countries with the first single Nsanyuka nawe enjoying good airplay.

Ghana has seen its fair share of pop idol competitions. Praye, Wutah and Traffic launched their careers through NESCAFE's African pop revelations and competed against other contestants across West Africa. TV3 Mentor introduced Ghana to Prince and Andy who were mentored by Noble Nketsia and Wutah while enjoying great television ratings in Ghana. Stars of the Future was closely followed and Irene, Ramzy and Jane emerged as the prize winners. There are other programs like Talent Hunt and American dream.

Praye won a Kora award and Wutah had massive hits including Big dreams which crossed the Atlantic to Jamaica. Irene and Jane are just starting to make waves, becoming an R&B tag team and doing songs with Wutah. Andy is set to release his maiden album, Dangerous Weather soon and some Mentor contestants are enjoying radio success, especially Okuraseni (Hmm Nana). The contests have been done like reality shows, with one Mark Okraku Mantey trying to emulate Simon Cowell of American idol and some contestants have been in the news unhappy with how they lost out, etc, etc. The current TV3 mentor features contestants from various regions in Ghana and have even composed songs to promote the show and their careers with choruses like, "na yEyEE zero, wOama yEn ayE heros, TV3 Mentor, yEda w'ase o" - we were zero, you have made us heroes, TV3 Mentor, we thank you.

My big issue with these contests is that of the music. Are these contests producing Mary J. Bliges, Sean Pauls and Spice Girls instead of Teddy Afros, Lagbajas and Brenda Fassies? Praye and Wutah have stuck to Twi mostly and are close to hiplife, but Irene and Jane sound more like Western artistes with funny accents. Blu3 have been christened Africa's Destiny Child. Are our traditional genres going to be replaced finally? Are these pop idol competitions promoting our African talent or showing us that our youth have mostly Western music influences? Are the days of merging highlife with hip hop, African music with house and afro-fusion over? Is the guard of African entertainment changing?

I hope not. Fair enough, we can also do R&B but who is going to take the fort from our marquee musicians who have shown the diversity and rich cultural heritage of our melodies and sounds? Isn't this what the pop and music competitions should be doing? We are watching, and listening.

Watch a performance (video) of Nsanyuka nawe

Watch the Hitaji video