Singer’s performance problems make no logical sense

This week, Kenyan fans were all over the place in their feelings. Tekno, the boy-wonder of Nigerian music who has been balling since 2015 at the top of the African music department, had ruined their weekend.

They had coughed out money for a big show in Nairobi, paid the fare, fought their way into the venue and waited for Tekno to come on. But after countless hours of wait, he finally showed up, tried to kick it for 28-minutes on stage, and left everyone with a more negative impression than he had before.

According to disappointed revellers, the DJ and everyone else who had an insight into the concert, Tekno did not bother to rehearse for the huge night. He missed media promotional interviews, failed to come through to the venue of the rehearsal and on the night, could not connect with his fans, the music, and more worryingly, his muse.

“He performed ‘Duro’, ‘Diana’, ‘Wash’, ‘Yawa’, ‘Go’ and ‘Rara’ but it was all hurried,” writes a blogger Mwende Ngao on her website. “Tekno was visibly frustrated and it was sad to watch as his stage presence was great and so were his moves but it simply wasn’t enough to give a good show. I would have preferred he didn’t use the band if he hadn’t had enough rehearsal time with them. The sound was awful and there were times the band was louder than him. After a confused 28 minutes of a performance, he left the stage.”

This is the clear opposite of who Tekno is off-stage. What confusion? The young man was born with the genes for exhibitionism. Scroll through his social media channels, and you would find spontaneous curated content from the man. He is engaging, witty, has a comic twist to his persona, and live a robust life. In music videos, he is a showman, switching from dancing to singing with smooth skill.

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If you saw the guy on Youtube, Snapchat and Instagram, listened to his pop songs, and follow his life, you would simply arrive at the conclusion that this man knows how to put up a great show. But the moment he climbs on stage, something snaps, and things don’t come together.

I have watched Tekno perform at numerous concerts, and for someone with that amount of talent, he usually finds new ways not to impress. Private shows aside, let’s look at the reaction from his more public performances.

People who follow the One Africa Music Fest concert series will hardly ever look forward to a Tekno performance. The response from seeing him on stage is mostly negative, with the singer failing to carry the crowd along.

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Tekno can perform. Deep down in all of that electric music and engaging celebrity lies a performer. The problem isn’t a lack of skill or an inability to perform, it’s simply because the singer fails to apply himself towards live sets. In Kenya, he simply didn’t bother to show up for rehearsals with the band that he was supposed to perform with. How did he expect to pull off a great show to the benefit of people who have paid good money to enable him to perform.

Other times, he just fails to sync with anything or emphasises more on a single thing so much that the rest of his act suffer. In Kenya, he was screaming “I love you Nairobi,” so much that people left the venue and went to show him back that love on Youtube.

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What Tekno needs is constant practice. Find a band, create one, and practice with them. He makes enough to be able to have one. Or if he can’t, any time he is booked for a show, just like the one in Kenya, show up early and try to reach common ground with the band.

But bad performances hurt a man more than he can understand, and leave a foul stench which follows his brand and affects his money. We in Nigeria have almost accepted our fate, but the Kenyans are sending the new ooze down our way.