The issue of bleaching amongst
Ghanaian female celebrities has inundated the media front in recent
times with one actress or TV personality being accused of altering their
skin colour every day.
One popular actress who was one of the first celebrities to be indicted for bleaching is Pascaline Edwards.
Edwards
took a lot of backlash from fans and industry observers when her
released photos some years ago depicted some skin colour change.
In
an exclusive interview with the actress, she denied ever bleaching and
stated emphatically, ‘Bleaching is bad, but I am not ready to educate
the stars who are into bleaching because they are mature enough to know
that bleaching is bad’.
Asked if she will advise them against the
act giving the opportunity she responded, ‘Hell no: I have other
important business to do, so I can’t waste my time to go and research
more about bleaching movie stars.’
On whether she’s aware and can
mention some of the names of the various movie stars who bleach, she
said that she’s not in position to mention the name of any celebrity who
bleaches, because every celebrity has his or her own reasons for doing
what he or she does.
According to her, she has heard that some
Ghanaian celebrities bleach for movie roles, but she doesn't believe
that statement, because she’s fair and doesn't get roles in recent
times: so if indeed it’s true that celebrities who bleach do so because
of movie roles she would have been getting more roles than she’s getting
now.
For many years, we’ve smoked
ourselves in the US 1950’s doctrine of Payola without necessary looking
at the cross-sectional effects—especially the benefits of paying for
your music to be hugely played on radio stations.
Ghanaian songs
are not going anywhere and this is partly due to the fact that, our
musicians have bought into this concept of; ‘I will not pay for my music
to be played or promoted’, wrongly terming every payment for radio
broadcast as POYOLA, a contraction of “pay” and Victrola record players.
Now
let me emphatically mention that, paying a DJ to play your song on
radio is not PAYOLA and there is nothing wrong with it—be it legal or
moral.
According to the U.S. law, 47 U.S.C. § 317 which gives
grounds to PAYOLA, the illegal act of PAYOLA takes place when a radio
station plays a specific song in exchange for money, service or other
valuable consideration directly or indirectly and fails to disclose on
air as being sponsored airtime—rather, presents the song as being part
of the normal day’s broadcast.
All around the world, musicians
and record companies pay HUGELY for their songs to be played/promoted on
radio stations, online and TV. There is nothing wrong with such
payments; the only thing wrong is when those broadcasting the songs fail
to state that their actions are sponsored.
In fact, I consider
Payola as an intelligent crime against radio listeners and not even the
musicians so why are the musicians in Ghana rather the ones heavily
fighting it?
Have we sat down to think of this? What is the
difference between paying for your music video to be shown on a TV
station and paying for your music to be played on radio?
If there
are equally good or crap songs out there and a DJ has a limited time on
his hands, I see nothing wrong if a musician buys 4 minutes of the DJ’s
airtime to make sure his song is played—-and remember the catch, as
long as the DJ makes it clear to the listeners that this is a promo or
does not present the song as being part of the normal day’s broadcast,
that is not illegal and it is not called Payola.
Ghanaian
musicians are seriously failing to market and promote their songs. Most
think printing out some promo CDs and handing it out to a few radio
stations is just enough—and that compels the radio stations to play
their songs.
What stops a musician from walking into the
marketing department of a radio station, buy airtime as they do for
their music videos and make sure their new songs are heard?
To
me, it is time musician’s re-evaluate the concept of Payola and ensure
that while not breaking the law, they can get their songs out there,
especially when the industry is over-saturated.
In law, the
playing of a song and acceptance of money to do so is perfectly legal,
and does not constitute payola. It is it the failure to let listeners
know through an announcement that payment has been made that makes this
act a misdemeanor offense.
Like it was once said, “Hell, there’s
payola in every industry. It’s common knowledge that most products and
services are sold not just on their interest quality. For example, food
companies often pay retailers to give their products prominent placement
on store shelves. None of that is illegal. It is all an accepted way of
doing business. We can argue whether it is ethical, but it’s not
illegal”.
I am not saying Payola should be championed, because it
is a crime against radio listeners. However, I am saying, payola is not
what most of us think it is—-and that paying a radio station to play
your song is not payola. It becomes payola when the radio station
deceives its listeners by presenting the song as being part of the
normal day’s broadcast.
If Obaapa tomatoes can pay and advertise
on radio stations, nothing stops a musician from paying and advertising
his music too. A commercial like; ‘Hey Charley, have you heard the new
song from Efya or Sarkodie, it dey be k3k3—and a minute of the song
being played—thereafter’ during allocated commercial time can never be
illegal and it will do magic!
This may come across as a joke but
controversial Ghanaian filmmaker Socrates Sarfo says he is thinking
about quitting filmmaking because he is no longer making profit from the
movies due to unprofessional activities in the industry. He told
NEWS-ONE’s Francis Addo that he is now into the production of a liquid
soap called Soc Liquid Soap.
Where has Mr.Socrates Sarfo been hiding?
I am not hiding. I sleep at home where I live with my family and go to work at my office.
We have not seen much of you since last year. Have you stopped producing movies?
I’m stopping.
Why?
I’m
fasting and praying that I will have the courage to stop because it’s
abnormal to me when you are dealing in an environment made up of
abnormal thinking people.
You mean the industry or the country as a whole?
The film industry in Ghana, I mean.
Why do you say they think abnormally?
They
are not smart. I think the problem is either the food they eat or the
water they drink. I wonder why they can’t add a simple 1+1 to get a
simple answer. How come in a population of 25 million we can’t easily
sell 100, 000 copies of a movie to break even?
What exactly do you want them to do?
Everyone
is losing money, yet it looks like they are just happy to get a camera
and a group of wannabe actors, then a story and then they shoot a movie,
then they head straight to TV stations and beg for it to be shown on
TV. They are only happy to see it being shown on TV but they don’t think
of how to raise money to pay their production cost.
The
distributors also get the films from you and give them out to people who
hold themselves as retailers without capital for free and the producer
is ignored and denied his money…Kwasiasem!
What do you think is causing the problem and how do we arrest it?
I’m tired. There is nothing new to tell them.
What has FIPAG done about it?
I’ve
said all that needs to be told to sensible people but they don’t get
it. For years I have been talking about systems and structures. We need
to put them in their proper places, yet they don’t get it. So I won’t be
stupid to go down with them.
Sounds like you are really angry about this?
I am not angry, I’m tired.
What structures do you propose?
I’ve
told them all that already. How does one get to be a producer? What
structures are there for exploration of the works and distribution
channels needed to be fixed?
Which movie did you last produce?
I am now into soap production. Soc Liquid Soap is what I’m into now. It’s for washing and cleaning.
So are you seriously stopping filmmaking?
Should I write it in English for you to understand?
I hear the problem is the sale of movies.
Many
people are watching films now but they are not watching what we are
selling, just tune to any TV channel and you can watch film for free so
why buy with money.
Has the problem with movie sales got something to do with the general economic challenge in the country?
No
no no, don’t bring economy into this. It’s that we are giving it out
for free on TV, so they don’t see the need to pay for it. Have people
stop buying pure water?
Don’t you think it will be unfair to compare the two?
If
you create the interest for it by advertising, people will go for it
but when it can be accessed for free why should someone use money to
buy? That’s my point.
But Socrates, I think some people like Abdul Salam are still making movies? And I believe they are making money.
My
wife has even stopped driving to opera to collect films from the shop
for free because she gets them for free on TV. How much more someone who
buys with money?
You used the right expression, ‘Believe they
are making money.’ As for making films you can but how about making your
money back? As for me I will be truthful with the facts. I’m not making
money anymore if someone chooses to brag about himself, fine; that’s
his or her problem.
Are you saying some people are only bragging and not making money as we are being told?
I am speaking about myself. I don’t know about others.
Socrates, do you think the best way is to opt out of the industry?
For
now, that is the sensible thing any smart person will do. I am not
Hercules to take the whole industry on my shoulders and force them to do
things right. I don’t believe in luck; I rely on strategic planning.
Socrates, tell readers about yourself.
I’m
a native of Kwahu Abetifi in the Eastern Region of Ghana. I was born in
Accra, attended Amamomo-1 Primary, then to Ayalolo-1 Boys Middle, then
to Mercedes Benz GNTC Technical Institute. I grew up on the streets of
Bukom. Fortunately, I am gainfully married to a woman that God prepared
for a man like me.
Your wife is a Pastor.
It’s her prayers
that keep me going and it takes a special kind of woman to manage a man
like me and take care of my four stubborn children-three boys and a
girl.
Did you ever feature any of your children in your movies?
I will never advise or allow any of my children to go into movies.
Where is Baby Blanche?
She is in her house, I believe.
When did you officially start filmmaking?
We finished shooting on July 1, 1986 and managed to release it on May 3, 1988 at the Globe Cinema.
Actor and business man, John Dumelo,
is easing the pressure some fans and loved ones are mounting on him to
get married. The actor is not putting much importance to the marriage
subject, at least not for now.
“People rush into marriage and
their marriage plummet within a short time, whiles some people relax and
wait for God’s time and enjoy the best marriages,” the actor made such a
pronouncement when Razz Newspaper caught up with him when he made some
donations to widows at Ada Foah Kewumor in the Volta Region during
Valentine’s Day.
The actor also disclosed that marriage is not
compulsory(by-force) and he does not fathom why people should be
coercing him into settling down. He groused, “Yes, people are giving me
pressure to marry but they need to know that, it is not a nine-day
wonder and one can’t just wake up and get married.”
On the
donations of items to the widows via his John Dumelo Foundation, the
actor said that the foundation has assisted over 1000 school children
across the world last year and this year, they are looking forward to
touching many more lives.
Touching on his other business
ventures, John said that a grand opening of his new hotel/ Apartment
called ‘Maselo’ is still underway and promised to update his fans on the
preparatory activities towards opening
‘Well, I wanted to open
the place in December like I proclaimed, but am still putting things
together. I will update my fans on the date the hotel will officially be
opened,” he concluded.
Mercy Johnson is Nigeria’s busiest
actress, YES International! investigations have revealed. The Igbira,
Kogi State born movie star, according to our findings, is also one of
the richest actresses right now.
She allegedly pockets between
N1.5m and N2m per script. And ever since she became the hottest thing in
Nollywood, no month passes by without her interpreting at least two
movie roles.
We even learnt that producers queue up now to have
her take part in their movies, with most of them crediting her account
up front. “The situation has been like that for some time now. Even when
she was pregnant, she was still working non-stop, including shooting a
movie in the United States of America with her bulging tummy.
As a
matter of fact, the producers were so desperate that they started
writing scripts to align with her pregnancy”. Among Mercy’s latest works
are: Obioma The Slave Girl, Sleeping Walker, Heart of A Twin 1 & 2,
Mud of Hardship, Dumebi and Bitterleaf Cynthia, There are also
Daniella, First Experience, Endless Agony, Immaculate Heart, Painful
Soul, Tears of Madness, Weeping Kingdom, Troubled King, Baby Oku in
America, Dumebi in School, Somma The Local Champion, Ebute The Only
Girl, Leave My Tears 1 & 2, Mary The Hunter, Cry of A Widow, Voice
of A Mother, etc. Obviously busy as a bee, a source, however, advised
that Mercy should learn from those before her and invest wisely. “And
this is why:
There was a time that Liz Benson was the hottest
thing in the industry. But where is she today? How busy is Liz right
now? Same thing with Patience Ozokwor, Victor Osuagwu and the rest of
them.
Even Genevieve Nnaji. My advise to her is: Maximize this
and make good use of the opportunity because some opportunities don’t
come twice”.
Married to Odianosen Okojie and blessed with a
daughter, Purity, she is the fourth child in a family of seven. In love
with playing monopoly and enjoying sentimental music, well endowed Mercy
attended Nigerian Navy Primary and Secondary Schools in Lagos.
An
unabashed admirer of Genevieve, her lead role in Kenneth Nnebue’s
movie, The Maid, thrust her onto prominence. The daughter of a retired
Naval personnel, that first major role fetched her only N50,000. But
today, the story has changed. Born on August 28, 1984, her favorite food
is Eba with Egusi.
Nikki Samonas, the Ghanaian actress
who reportedly had real hot sex with Jim Iyke on a movie set, has
described Ghanaian musician E.L. as her number one sexist guy and says
she wants to have twin babies by him.
Nikki was answering a
question on which guys she found sexy and after mentioning Nigerian
stars RMD and P-Square, she settled on E.L. as her number one and
pleaded with him to ‘look for her.’
“My sexiest guy would go to
RMD (Richard Mofe Damijo) because he is matured but still looks
amazingly good; the P-Square brothers are also smoking hot! And E.L. is
number one. Damn! That guy is sexy; he is tall, has a chisel face and
muscles. (In a bass voice) E.L. look for me wai. Oh gash E.L. is
sexxxxxyyy!,” Nikki told Joyce Gyebi in an interview for GLITZ magazine,
Fashionista Issue.
Attempts to reach E.L. proved futile as he was out of town and calls placed to his phones did not go through.
E.L.
is currently not dating and it would not be a surprise if the two
initiate something romantic anytime soon, depending on what E.L. thought
about the Nikki-Jim Iyke sex saga.
Nikki is a daring person who says what she feels, but she has consistently denied she got bonked by Jim Iyke.
“Jim
and I have done a couple of movies together and he seems impressed with
me, so he invited me to Nigeria and we starred in two or three movies
including the one with the sex scene and unfortunately for me, I trusted
people a bit too much.
“Jim is the second guy I had done a sex
scene with so I was pretty comfortable, but all Ghanaians, please it was
only a sex scene in a movie and make-believe, so they could be edited
on the editing bench to make it have that real effect. Whatever you
watch is not a sex tape…I am not the only one who has done sex scenes,”
Nikki explained in the same interview.
NEWS-ONE has gathered that the tussle
between artiste manager Fennec Okyere and rapper Kwaw Kese on one hand
and the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) about who has legal rights to
use the franchise and brand name, “Ghana Music Week” is coming to a
peaceful end.
Fennec Okyere is said to have agreed to hand over
the rights of the brand name to MUSIGA if only it would be registered in
the Union’s name but not the name of another private company.
Though
MUSIGA was putting up a bold face in the media, NEWS-ONE has been
reliably informed the Union has sent emissaries to dialogue with Fennec
for a settlement of the tussle and this seemed to have yielded some
positive result.
“I am ready to go to the Registrar General’s
Department and change the name from mine to that of MUSIGA so the Union
owns the franchise and this would save us all because if you remember,
after MUSIGA held the first one, we were told that a certain company had
registered it and if I had not gone to do this, by now the story would
be that Ghana Music Week belongs to a private company,” Fennec noted.
In
an earlier interview with NEWS-ONE, Fennec explained that he and Kwaw
Kese went ahead to register “Ghana Music Week” as their company because
they felt Obour and his administration were trying to outsmart the
members of the Union.
Fennec, who has been receiving threats on
his life over his claims on GMW, added that Obour had earlier admitted
on radio that the music festival was owned by a company called Yendi; a
story which turned out to be false.
According to him, his sources
had told him that Obour was getting ready to register the GMW
celebrations as his personal entity, and he felt that was unfair to the
entire creative industry.
“My Brother do you know what has
brought about this fight? When Obour was asked who owned Ghana Music
Week sometime last year, he said it was owned by a company called Yendi
and our checks at the Registrar General show that that was not true.
Which
means Obour and his people had decided to register the name of the
Union’s event in their private name so that many years after they were
gone they will own the event and claim royalties. It is a clear case of
Obour using his colleagues and trying to outsmart them,” Fennec
revealed.
Meanwhile, checks by the paper disclosed that since Mad
Time Entertainment threatened to sue MUSIGA and any other cooperate
bodies involved with the GMW festival jointly and severally, Obour and
his administration have been behind closed doors deliberating on how
best to resolve the issue.
It is officially confirmed that
Charter House, organizers of the prestigious Vodafone Ghana Music Awards
and event giant in Ghana, is hitting Ghana again with another uniquely
prestigious award scheme dubbed Ghana Entertainment Awards.
The long awaited official launch is scheduled to happen at the plush Villa Monticello in March this year.
The
scheme seeks to award all sectors of Ghana’s arts and entertainment
industry. This is perceived by professionals in the industry as a step
in the right direction considering its diverse scope.
The Ghana
Entertainment Awards is designed to award people in all the different
sectors of the creative arts industry and shall reward excellence in
music, movies, radio, TV, fashion, arts writing, events, sports and many
more.
Yaw
Sakyi, host of TV Africa’s “Rundown”, was the only live wire during the
just ended second edition of Ghana DJ Awards at the National Theatre,
Saturday February 22.
Yaw, who went to the show to enjoy himself
as an industry observer and to also present an award, ended up on stage
as the only MC for entire awards event, because the advertised MC for
the night, for some reason, decided not to show up.
According to
an official press release from the organizers, prior to the event,
Nigerian Comedian Klint De Drunk, was to be the MC but for unknown
reasons, he was conspicuously missing from the venue from the beginning
of the show to the end, and organizers didn’t even have the decency to
apologize to the audience and explain why the MC couldn’t make it.
This
perhaps was one of the numerous reasons why the show started late. As
usual the show started after 11pm with most of the people having been
sitting for hours waiting. Care-taker MC Yaw Sakyi, who couldn’t believe
he was on stage as an MC, walked on stage with his signature laughter,
introduced himself as the MC apologized for the late start, and took
over the stage to kick the show running.
Without any idea as to
what the running order and the program line-up was, Yaw improvised and
hosted the show like he had been paid for it. Inviting stars like Praye
Tiatia, Adolf Tagoe and some people from the audience randomly on stage
to entertain the audience, he interacted with selected people quite
professionally.
Yaw Sakyi saved the disgraceful situation so
well that after a few minutes everybody even forgot he was not the
original MC for the night.
As if absence of the MC was not
enough, the audience had more unforgivable hitches during the award
presentation. Award presenters were embarrassed on stage because after
they introduced themselves and said the popular phase “and the nominees
are” there was no screen and there were no nominees. This happened ones,
twice and after the third time the presenters themselves had to mention
all the nominees before they eventually name the winner.
Performances
on the night were virtually like a dancehall show at DJs awards night.
Most of the artistes who performed are dancehall artistes. The likes of
Mz Vee, Stonebwoy, AK Songstress, Episode, Pope Skinny, Diamond amongst
others.
Discovery of the year Dj Bryte, DJ Slim from Kumasi, and
DJ Foe also did their own things on the turntable to entertain the
crowd. One of the highest points on stage was when guest DJs like
Nigeria’s finest DJ Jimmy Jatt, DJ Rab from New York, and South African
queen of turntable DJ Divalash, were introduced on stage.
The
stage design was not fit for an awards event. The only visible thing on
stage was an oval-shaped Redbull branded DJ stand on a bare background.
There
was no backdrop or any set design or screens to display the name of the
event on the stage (Sakora stage). The sound and light were manageable
but could obviously have been better. Attendance was about 50% of the
National Theater capacity.
Yaw
Sakyi, host of TV Africa’s “Rundown”, was the only live wire during the
just ended second edition of Ghana DJ Awards at the National Theatre,
Saturday February 22.
Yaw, who went to the show to enjoy himself
as an industry observer and to also present an award, ended up on stage
as the only MC for entire awards event, because the advertised MC for
the night, for some reason, decided not to show up.
According to
an official press release from the organizers, prior to the event,
Nigerian Comedian Klint De Drunk, was to be the MC but for unknown
reasons, he was conspicuously missing from the venue from the beginning
of the show to the end, and organizers didn’t even have the decency to
apologize to the audience and explain why the MC couldn’t make it.
This
perhaps was one of the numerous reasons why the show started late. As
usual the show started after 11pm with most of the people having been
sitting for hours waiting. Care-taker MC Yaw Sakyi, who couldn’t believe
he was on stage as an MC, walked on stage with his signature laughter,
introduced himself as the MC apologized for the late start, and took
over the stage to kick the show running.
Without any idea as to
what the running order and the program line-up was, Yaw improvised and
hosted the show like he had been paid for it. Inviting stars like Praye
Tiatia, Adolf Tagoe and some people from the audience randomly on stage
to entertain the audience, he interacted with selected people quite
professionally.
Yaw Sakyi saved the disgraceful situation so
well that after a few minutes everybody even forgot he was not the
original MC for the night.
As if absence of the MC was not
enough, the audience had more unforgivable hitches during the award
presentation. Award presenters were embarrassed on stage because after
they introduced themselves and said the popular phase “and the nominees
are” there was no screen and there were no nominees. This happened ones,
twice and after the third time the presenters themselves had to mention
all the nominees before they eventually name the winner.
Performances
on the night were virtually like a dancehall show at DJs awards night.
Most of the artistes who performed are dancehall artistes. The likes of
Mz Vee, Stonebwoy, AK Songstress, Episode, Pope Skinny, Diamond amongst
others.
Discovery of the year Dj Bryte, DJ Slim from Kumasi, and
DJ Foe also did their own things on the turntable to entertain the
crowd. One of the highest points on stage was when guest DJs like
Nigeria’s finest DJ Jimmy Jatt, DJ Rab from New York, and South African
queen of turntable DJ Divalash, were introduced on stage.
The
stage design was not fit for an awards event. The only visible thing on
stage was an oval-shaped Redbull branded DJ stand on a bare background.
There
was no backdrop or any set design or screens to display the name of the
event on the stage (Sakora stage). The sound and light were manageable
but could obviously have been better. Attendance was about 50% of the
National Theater capacity.
One of Ghana’s finest rappers,
M.anifest, also known as Kwame Ametepe Tsikata, says he does not want
his private life to be like a soap opera watched by the public.
Giving
an insight on his off stage life, he further revealed that he “always
had a keener or deeper interest in music than the normal person” adding
that he had an interest in writing as well.”
“I was in my first
rap group when I was in Secondary School. It was called Rebel Camp -
there was nothing rebellious about us though. It was just a nice name.
But that was just how I got my feet wet. When I went to university, I
got the chance to experience more of the different aspects of the music.
I was hanging out with more producers, I saw different shows,” he
stated.
Commenting further on how his music career began he
stated that “I saw definitely more artistes outside of hip-hop so I
basically dived into a music making aspect and maybe took a bit of a
back seat even to the creation. Without going to a music school, that
was music school. By 2005 when I finished college, I basically begun
attacking it and in 2007 I released my first album, Manifestation. I did
my first album the DIY (do it yourself) way; I recorded it, mixed it,
got some money doing a Pepsi jingle, used that money to print CDs myself
and I did everything myself,”
“I’m married to my music. My
private life will be my private life which is the beauty of it. I give
the people a lot in my music and if they listen to my music, they will
know so much about me more than I want them to know. But one thing I’m
not interested in is becoming a public soap opera and people talking
about whom is he dating and all that. It is of very little interest to
me because I feel like there is a lot to be done creatively with my
music that I don’t need any of that distraction. It is an unhealthy
distraction for people to be vested in what is my private life,” he
added.
Answering the question on the reactions from his dad after
becoming a musician, he stated that “I think he is fine with it. Who
wouldn’t be? He was at my studio release party last December. Everybody
likes good music, so does my father.”
