ENTERVAGANZA
22
Celebrity H
ow does it feel to be a Glo ambassador? It’s amazing. It’s an opportunity to represent a brand that is African and is gradually going global as well, you know, which is sort of like my brand. So it’s a great thing for me, and definitely, I know they have accomplished a lot of strives and processes so it’s a brand that I’m trying to associate with as well, you know, because I’m trying to go that route, you know, increase my process, go global, so it’s just amazing being on the same platform with that brand. What did you do to be chosen out of the numerous celebrities in town? I got called. I actually got called and we had a couple of meetings and the negotiation process started, so I didn’t do anything. I think I was just being me, you know, we are doing music and they paid attention and they called us. Seriously. Are you saying categorically that your management didn’t go and lobby for it? No. It was a surprise when they called us actually. It was like wow! And then we went to them and had a few meetings, and that was it, so my management didn’t approach them. We don’t actually get to know the details of Nigerian endorsements, unlike in America and Europe where they tell you everything about theirs. Can you tell us the details of yours, how much it’s worth, and so on? It’s because it’s a contract. When you sign a contract, you are actually bound to, you know, secrecy. So there’s no way you can share out the details. The only details you see online are speculations. They can never know the main details. Why is it a secret? Why can’t you tell us about it? What’s the big deal there? It’s because when you sign a contract, will you tell me how much your salary package is? You likely wouldn’t tell me because you signed a contract. It’s a job, you know, I’m employed by Glo to do a job, so it’s sort of like saying, what is your salary package, how much are they giving you for allowance, most likely I will not tell you that. The Glo ambassadors you took over from were actors. Does it mean that the music sector is bigger than the acting? I think both sectors are huge. You go to Gambia, Kenya, many places, and they know all the actors and actresses. Nollywood is like number three in the world in the volume of movies being churned out. And in the same way, Nigerian artists are huge all around the world. We are celebrated worldwide, Nigerians are everywhere, so it’s hard to say which one is bigger, because I do not have figures, statistics regarding, but from my travels around the world, I know they hold the artists in high respect and the actors in high respect as well.
July 27, 2013
Saturday Mirror www.nationalmirroronline.net
I am not marrying Rashidi Ladoja’s daughter for money -Bez Bez is one of the lucky celebrities in town. He is one of the celebrities who have a juicy endorsement with telecommunications giant, Globacom. He tells ENTERVAGANZA about it and his upcoming marriage to ex-Governor Rashidi Ladoja’s daughter. How did you get signed on by Cobhams to his record label? I met him in 2008, and he was looking for somebody to open up for Asa because she was having a concert, and somebody recommended me to him, and we hit it off, you know, he liked my music and we became friends, started working together that same year, and it was a smooth transition to ‘OK, let’s do this for real. The album is coming out in 2011, let’s sign a contract, not because you’ll run away, we are friends, but this needs to be done properly.’ And that was when we made it official in 2011, but before that, we had a gentlemen’s agreement. How do you feel about many of your colleagues just walking out of their record contracts? I think there must be an issue or a problem, an internal problem, and I do not know what the problem is so I cannot advice or give my opinion. But in my case, if there’s an internal problem I try to sort it out amicably. And if it can’t be settled amicably, we’ll have to find a way of sorting it the right way because we signed a contract, it has to be done the right way through the courts or you bring your lawyers or something. Don’t just walk away. That’s what I’ll do. But right now, I’m pretty happy with my label. What’s the latest about your music? We released a video this week. It’s for Say, a song in my album, it was shot by Kemi Adetiba, we tried to do it in a movie kind of way, and it’s great. I’ll also be work-
ing on my next album in New York, Houston, Nashville, and it’ll be released next year, but we’ll start bringing out singles this year. Who’s producing it? It’s Cob-
hams Asuquo as well. So why are you guys going to record outside the country? Well, the studio setup we have in Nigeria is great, but like these studios we are going to record have been in existence for years. I mean 40, 50, 70 years. Nashville is a town for music. So when you go to a new environment to record, I did my last album in Lagos, but we are trying to go to a new environment, see how it’s being done there, take in the air, the people and just have a different mindset when we’re recording. Next time, it may not be in America, it may be Brazil or somewhere. You were nominated for six Headies last year but you didn’t win any. How do you feel about that? I felt really disappointed because I thought that I would win at least one. But it didn’t come true. But my music has never been about winning awards. If it comes, great. If it doesn’t, life goes on. Like I said on Twitter that day, because people were like ‘Sorry, sorry,’ I was like music is not about winning awards and if you don’t win, go on to the next performance, rock it and catch your fun and come back and work some more. For you to be nominated six times shows at least that you are recognised in your field. People feel you are trying to marry money by marrying Rashidi Ladoja’s daughter soon. Well, people are entitled to their opinion. My dad was a politician as well and he lost his life when he was trying to become a governor when I was in JS 2. From then on, finances crashed and all that, but I never debased myself. I was in a great school, Loyola Jesuit, and I had a network f friends, so will I now leave that network to go to the village to get a wife? It’s the person that you are around that you become friends with so if you become friends with people in your class, eventually you might marry one of them, and that’s what’s happening, so people are entitled to their own opinion, whether it’s money, whether it’s anything.