The crowd erupted in a frenzy when he climbed the stage. Now with added flesh and looking bigger in his stage outfit, he knew what he wanted to dish out to Africans at the Independence Square, Accra, venue of the 5th AFRIMA Music Village.
By the time he started singing his hit song, ‘Yahooze’ the crowd went wild and started singing along with him.
To think that the song is 11 years old!
It was indeed a long night of fun, glamour and entertainment as different musicians from the African continent performed at the AFRIMA Music Village in Accra on November 22, 2018. Other musicians who performed at the concert were Sarkodie, Guru, Teni, and many others.
The AFRIMA Music Village is an evening of non-stop music festival model – A concert by African artistes and AFRIMA nominees, with thousands of music lovers enjoying the live performances.
However, the Yahooze track, which is highly embraced by millions of youths, who are fans of Olu Maintain, is perceived to have promoted Internet fraud.
But in a recent chat with Saturday Punch, the singer said he was not the one that began the trend. He stressed that his 11-year-old song was not meant to glorify Internet fraud and that the video he shot for the song passed the message across clearly.
“When you create a body of art, people can misinterpret it the way they see fit. I mean, Yahooze is 11 years old and if you watch the video of the song, it was centred around an upcoming artiste that got a million dollar record deal. That was the message I presented with the song. Does the music video in any way represent Internet fraud? The answer is no.
“I cannot be responsible for how people interpret a work of art. It is like a painting, a man would value a painting for millions of dollars but to the other man, it does not make sense. Art should be subjected to everyone’s interpretation. My interpretation of that form of art was made very obvious,” he said.
The Yahooze singer further explained why it was difficult to release another hit song that could rival, Yahooze, saying, “It is a different generation and a different era with a different demography. As an artiste; as you grow, your core demography changes.
“Yahooze came out in an era when there was no social media. Today, people’s patience to digest any material is very short; 11 years ago, it was not like that. If you had a hit song, it could last for about two years but these days you are competing with so many bodies of work and it would take something special for you to have the same kind of buzz that a song like Yahooze had.”