Veteran Afro-Juju legend, Sir Shina Peters, has recounted the extreme lengths his team went to in order to rebuild his public image following the controversy that trailed his exit from Prince Adekunle’s band.
Speaking on The Honest Bunch Podcast, the music icon revealed that his record label once devised an unusual publicity strategy that involved making him appear as a madman in public to win back sympathy from fans.
“When I left Prince Adekunle’s band, people protested against me, saying that I left my father because of money,” Sir Shina Peters said. “Then, the owner of my record label, Tunde Savage, who was the marketing director of Daily Times, alongside the weekend editor of Concord Newspapers and Evening Times editor, all came up with an idea.”
He explained that his label boss and a group of top media executives orchestrated the act to change how the public perceived him at the time.
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“The owner of the label called me one day and said I would plate my hair and not loosen it for three days. He also asked me to tear some of my old clothes, which I did,” he recounted. “On the third day, they loosened the hair but didn’t comb it. Then I wore the torn clothes, and they took me to Oyingbo Market to buy ewedu. As I was buying it, they captured everything on camera, but I didn’t know what they were up to.”
According to him, the plan didn’t end there. He was later taken to Badagry, where he was told to act in a way that would further convince people of his supposed breakdown.
“They asked me to eat like a madman all because the first day I left Prince Adekunle, people didn’t find it easy and were mad at me. So all the gimmicks were to change the narrative and earn empathy from fans,” he explained.
Sir Shina Peters said the publicity stunt eventually worked in his favor, as it helped soften public criticism and reshape the narrative surrounding his split from the band.