It was about 11:30am on Sunday Morning when I received a whatsApp message from Wise Tola about the Mavins Press conference. Being the worthy child of God that I am, the only place you can catch me on a Sunday Morning is at Church washing my sins from Saturday night away.
I quickly skimmed through the message “Press Conference” “Mavins” “4-7” “RSVP” and put the phone back in my pocket. The only person in the world, that could skim through a message of such importance, and miss the date? Yep you guessed it, ME.
Luckily for me, my wise Sister Tola followed it up with “Be There”. It was at this point I decided to read the message properly. The press conference was from 4-7 on the same day!!
Now anyone who knows me, knows it takes me 24hours at the very least to plan for anything. I was supposed to attend a video shoot for the UK afrobeat artist DJ AfroB along with my co presenter on the Afrobeat Takeover, Selecta Maestro. But due to the magnitude of this Press Conference, I had to cancel on AfroB.
So I arrived at the Location in East London around 3:30pm, but didn’t get into the venue until 4:10! Yes, my cheapskate self was looking for free parking. FIFTEEN POUNDS was the cheapest any of the car parks would accept.
Now as far as first impressions go, the venue used for the conference was very nice. I’ve been to a number of press conferences recently for Afrobeats events, and the venues have been disappointing.
A Yacht converted into a hotel on the Royal Victoria dock was far from what I expected. I was greeted by the lovely Just Teeah upon arrival, and wasn’t surprised that I was one of the first to arrive. When you put African, Concert and Press Conference all in the same sentence, the result is always LATE.
As I waited, members of the media started to arrive. Minnie Marj, Dj Gabe, Wise Tola, Ola Melody and the dj for the conference; DJ Untouchable.
4:41pm Members of the Krystal City Entertainment group arrive along with supporting act for the Show; Mazi Chukz.
5:10pm two members of the All Star Music promo team arrive.
5:43pm I take a selfie with the Legend Wise Tola, this was the highlight of my evening until 6:28pm when the Mavins arrive without Korede Bello.
Prior to their arrival, event host Adesope, had advised members of the Press that the line of questioning should be focused around the Concert and not around any controversy that may be related to the Mavins. I immediately crossed out 2 of the questions I had lined up. Sigh!
The first few questions posed to the team were generally on how they felt performing for the first time under the Mavins banner in the UK.
Dr Sid, took the microphone first and responded with a smile that looked like he was trying to remind us he was a dentist.
When the question of how the new acts were going to be sold to the audience who knew little about them, Don Jazzy replied that the audience would have to rely on their raw talent through their music and performances.
A well-processed question was put to the team about the challenges facing the development of the genre. Now naturally I expected Dr Sid to answer this question, However we witnessed DonJazzy & Tiwa Savage squabble over the microphone in a somewhat playful manner that had tongues wagging.
At this point I noticed Tiwa didn’t have her wedding or engagement rings on. Now if we were having a conversation face to face, this is were i would say “No comment”. If we were texting I would send a picture of Kermit the frog drinking tea. But since I'm writing my experience of the conference I will tell you exactly what I did. I looked to my left were Ganyiat (founder of Mr & Mrs Nigeria UK) was sitting and said to her quietly “Seen”.
Don Jazzy appeared to give a cheeky stab at other promoters in his response “I pity the fans”. He reckons UK Afrobeat fans have been sold dreams in the past, and that he would like to see proper fans at the Mavins Concert.
The tone for the rest of the conference was primarily focused on how the Mavins were planning to extend their longevity in the industry.
Wise Tola asked a question I had written down to Tiwa Savage about what she plans to do differently, since she had just co-headlined the Africa-Unplugged Concert. Her Reply had the conference roaring and me dribbling “I will perform Naked”.
Adesope started to round the conference up by asking Di’ja how she felt being a part of this concert. To my surprise a part of her response was in Hausa. I was stunned because she looks Igbo and has a name that sounds like its short for Kadija, which is commonly used by Yoruba Muslims, and now she’s speaking Hausa.
Reekado Banks was asked a similar question, but all I remember him saying was he had a crush on Tiwa Savage. Yep you heard it right! Oh yeah, he also said “shout out to TeeBillz” Awkward.
When Adesope asked Mazi Chukz about how he felt about being on the line up, his Cheer leading fans in the audience ripped out my ear drums with their screams. Im Certain Don Jazzy left the conference thinking. “Kai who be dis guy”
The conference ended around 7pm with final words from Akinlolu Jenkins and PhatB.
By Dayo aka DBoy
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