REVIEW: Soundcity MVP awards — a blueprint for concerts in Nigeria

The 2017 Soundcity MVP awards which took place Friday night at the Eko Hotel & Suites should serve as a prototype for Nigerian concerts.

The last time a concert was well packaged in such a manner was in 2013 at the Guinness ‘Colourful World of More’.

Although not an award concert, the Guinness event paid attention to all the important elements of a concert.

The only area the show failed to have a contingency plan for was the crowd. But a lot of people didn’t mind as long as they enjoyed the experience.

That was the same feeling at the Soundcity MVP awards.

Stage & hall setting

Not even the stage of the Guinness event matched what the Soundcity awards and concert had last night.

From the architecture to the creativity, it was remarkable. You were bound to get a good view from whatever angle you were positioned.

With the aid of amazing effects and lighting during performances, the stage made the hall seem like a large boom box.

The curved stage was built in such a way that every attendee, irrespective of class, enjoyed the full experience of onstage activities.

It was quite easy to forget it was the same venue Davido and Wizkid held their December concerts.

Performances

Nigerian rapper, MI Abaga, spent the latter part of 2017 staying relevant by telling rappers to ‘stay relevant’.

This year, he brought his message quite early by making a remarkable comeback at the Soundcity MVPs.

Kicking off his performance with ‘Anoti’, he took the audience down memory lane with some of his old hits.

He wrapped up his set with his recent song ‘You Rapper Should Fix Up Your Life’.

Singer Tiwa Savage was heavily criticised in 2017 for her chronic lip-synching and she assured her fans that her ‘sweet voice’ would be heard someday soon.

The day came last night and it was clear she was right to have stuck to lip-synching. The distinction between her voice and the sound-over when switched interchangeably was quite obvious.

But she deserves credit for making the effort to stay true to her word and attempt to become a better live performer.

Kiss Daniel, Fly Boy Inc artiste, made a huge career move in 2017 when he left G-Worldwide Entertainment, his label of five years.

The artiste built his career while on the roster of the label but said he needed to move to the next level of his career, hence his departure.

His exit came at a time when he had put out back to back hits, and at the Soundcity event, he soared — aided by the audience — like a bird just set free from a cage.

Time

The show started two hours after the slated time.

Although there was a low turnout at the initial stage and eventually for the better part of the event, the delay only encouraged those who made the effort to come early not to do so in future.

The problem of African time persists.

The brevity of the performances, without taking away their substance, was commendable. There were little pauses at different points but they rarely lasted long enough to draw murmurs from the crowd.

Organisation

The show was well packaged. From the direction and production to the management of the event, there were little or no complaints.

The entrance led audiences into the halls according to tag placement. Although there were altercations at some point regarding tag mix-up, they never materialised into a snafu.

Verdict: Despite a few hitches, the Soundcity awards, although nowhere close to perfection, has greatly improved since it was first held in 2016.