Coachella 2019 and Burna Boy’s grief: Is African music industry underrated?
You see, the story is, the Coachella 2019 Lineup was announced and this music star who was one of the most remarkable acts of 2018 was unhappy about the tiny font size used to display his name on the banner.
Coachella 2019 and Burna Boy’s grief: Is African music industry underrated?
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But this “African Giant” won’t jump miserably at the opportunity. If he’s going to travel across the Atlantic to hold a mic at one of the most prominent appearances of his career, then it better be like he imagined.
You see, the story is, the Coachella 2019 Lineup was announced and this music star who was one of the most remarkable acts of 2018 was unhappy about the tiny font size used to display his name on the banner.
Coachella 2019 and Burna Boy’s grief: Is African music industry underrated?
Pulse Nigeria
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So he demanded via his Instastory that Coachella organisers fix things.
Coachella 2019 and Burna Boy’s grief: Is African music industry underrated?
Pulse Nigeria
And after what was a derogatory reaction from Nigerians on social media, he published another Instagram story to explain the reason for his angst.
Coachella 2019 and Burna Boy’s grief: Is African music industry underrated?
Pulse Nigeria
Now, while it’s easy to quickly dispose of Burna’s protest as an egoist’s demonstration, it would cause us no harm to give it some thought to at least assess its validity.
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Is African Music and Creativity Disrespected on the Global Stage?
It’s normal for people today to quickly pull out the racist card in their defence whenever they want to prove a point. However, not everything happens because a person is black or white.
Matter-of-factly, Afro music has come a long way in recent years, with a growing acceptance across the world. We have witnessed collaborations between our African stars and some of the biggest artistes from across the globe.
These achievements are worth celebrating, and points to even bigger feats to come.
In fact, having Mr Eazi and Burna Boy as part of the lineup for this year’s Coachella is yet another trophy for the African music industry.
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Yes, we admit it would have been a greater win for us if our own was selected to be one of the major acts for the year.
However, why that hasn’t happened yet is not something to scrutinize through the slightly tinted lenses of racism. There may be a more objective interpretation to it.
A Larger Font - Yay or Nay?
Firstly, “Giant” or no giant, there are some other few things that need to be considered before you are awarded the grand medal of a larger font.
How much record sales has Burna Boy? What is the current level of popularity for his type of music? Is his social following huge?
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With a look at these figures behind each of the artistes for Coachella 2019, it may be safe to say Burna’s place on the banner may have been influenced by statistics than by skin colour.
So perhaps a more worthy protest our Burna could have picked up is: What will it take for us to be better noticed? How can we claim more seats at the global table?
Or do we build our own table and invite the world?
If you ask me, that’s exactly what all our African music giants have been doing for the last few decades.
And we’re almost there. Hang on, OluwaBurna.
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Written by Dorcas Agbogun
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