Entertainers struggling to maintain their relevance (1)

It’s very hard to become a star, a celebrity or a popular and famous figure. As hard as it is to achieve fame, it’s harder still to retain it. Many who achieve it lose it after a very short time. But they don’t lose it without trying their best to retain it, as the lifestyle of a celebrity is so desirable that most people want it so those who attain don’t ever want to lose it.

The sad reality of life however is that nothing lasts forever and that whatever has a beginning must have an ending. So fame and stardom don’t last forever. No matter how popular and famous a celebrity or star is, he or she eventually fades for newer faces.

While some stars fade due to age, most fade because they are not able to sustain whatever made them famous. For instance, a musician can only keep being popular by releasing smash hits, and actors, actresses can only keep their fame by starring in blockbuster movies.

And going by all the above permutations, it shouldn’t be surprising to anyone that some Nigerian stars are presently in the struggle of their lives to retain their fame.

Top on the list of these Nigerian stars is definitely Innocent Ujah Idibia popularly known as 2face Idibia. 2face is a very big star. After being a locally recognised star for some years, he became internationally recognised ten years ago when his song, African Queen, became an international sensation.

Till date, no Nigerian musician has been able to achieve the sort of success 2face did with African Queen. And the song’s unprecedented success also reflected on 2face. He became the nation’s top musician, the one sought after most and his debut album, Grass 2 Grace, in which African Queen was, sold like hot cake.

So also his sophomore album, Face 2 Face. He hit a rough patch afterwards as his public image took a negative hit due to him having children from three women. The negativity affected his music and he almost went under. But he rebounded with Implication and Only Me about four years ago. Ihe Neme, from his fifth studio album, Away & Beyond, also became very successful and helped him maintain his stardom.

He’s however back to struggling to maintain his relevance. Last year, he released his sixth album, The Ascension, and it hasn’t flown the way it was expected to. Ascension’s lead singles, Let Somebody Love You and Go are yet to become listeners’ favourites.

Though Ascension was massively promoted with several release parties, it can’t be said to be really doing well in the market.

Careful analysis makes it apparent that 2face is struggling now because of the two factors mentioned earlier: age and inconsistency.

Age because it’s now ten years already since he released African Queen and people get bored very easily so they are already looking to newer artists to satisfy themselves. And inconsistency because 2face, maybe because he’s blessed with abundant talent in singing and songwriting, does not take proper care of other sectors of his brand, most especially music videos.

While P-Square shoot big budget videos that keep enhancing their brand, 2face’s videos are among the worst ever. He shoots terrible videos for his great songs. Examples are the videos of Dance In The Rain and Let Somebody Love You.

Another celebrity whom it’s also quite obvious that he’s struggling to maintain his stardom is Daniel Dapo Oyebanjo aka D’Banj. D’Banj is the only artist who has come close to 2face. Though he has given 2face a run for his money, he didn’t meet up with him. He however carved a niche for himself thereby and is known far and wide.

So there was a time he was in real demand. That was then. Now, most people don’t really gush about him as they used to. In fact, he encounters more criticism than praise nowadays from the music loving public.

One of the reasons he lost his hold on the music industry is that he broke up with his partner whom they broke into the industry together, Don Jazzy. Since their split, D’Banj just can’t really do anything right in the public’s eye, especially as Jazzy has gone on to record more popular songs since they broke up.

So when D’Banj sings now, they say he’s copying Jazzy and that he can only do well by going back to Jazzy as Jazzy is the only one who has the right working chemistry with him.

Right now, D’Banj is worse off than 2face. He’s losing his relevance faster and struggling hard to retain it. And unless he comes up with the right solution soon, he might just have to bow out of the game soonest.

Though he has tried a lot of gimmicks, including a publicity stunt that he’s dating Genevieve Nnaji, he’s yet to recover the affection the public once had for him and it’s not certain if he ever will.

Genevieve is another big fish entertainer like 2face and D’Banj who is fast losing her relevance. An actress, gone are those days when producers would do anything to have her in their movies, when she easily made the cover of virtually every tabloid for one silly reason or the other.

Oh, how the mighty are fallen. Nowadays, Genny is not really hot again. Though her name still rings bells and he still has a large followership, the roles are still not pouring in. In fact, she has so much free time on her hands that she’s travelling the world sightseeing.

She has travelled so much recently that some have even said it’s only a matter of time before she’ll relocate from the country and that her travelling is for her to know where she’ll relocate to.  

********************************To be continued****************************************************