Partygoers filled Laphto, a multipurpose
fitness, entertainment, and shopping facility, on South Africa Street, a
commercial centre adjacent to Bisrate Gabriel Church, to the brim in
mid-January 2012. It was a concert by Hailemichael Getenet, fondly known by his
fans as Haile Roots, whose first album Chiggae was an instant hit.
The concert drew an
overwhelming number of fans, some had minor confrontations with police officers
deployed at the gate, when they were told tickets were all sold out and space
was not available. A little over 1,500 people were dancing to the tune of a vocalist
whose brand is blending reggae with chikchika, a genre of music with roots from
the north-western part of Ethiopia.
The crowd had on wait for
the unscheduled appearance to the stage of what is today the most sensational
musician of contemporary Ethiopia to be electrified. Fans of Tewodros Kassahun,
a.k.a. Teddy Afro, were thrilled, while thousands of hands stretched to the
skies.
The deafening roar muffled
the music. Silhouetted on the glittering stage lights, he chanted his signature
intro, “Addis Abeba . . . Ethiopia . . . Asmara . . .”
The intensity of the yell
was amplified inside the hall. The fans complied with the signal he gave. With
the microphone pointed at them so that they would sing, in unison, to the
verses he started but left unfinished.
“Never have I seen a crowd
go so wild,” said a middle-aged man who went on to see the concert mainly to
accompany his two teenage sons.
A teenager of, perhaps, his
sons’ age jumped over to the stage, took off his shirt, and hugged Teddy in
full force. The stage bouncers rushed to jerk him off of the singer, who
composed himself, instantly, and finished his first song.
A crowd far above the ground
called his name for a minute long, again in unison, as if superbly composed by
a professional conductor.
“Teddy was in good shape at
that concert,” a known music critic recalled. “He performed well.”
Whether performing at places
he is least expected or at his own concerts, Teddy Afro is now familiar with
entertaining rather enlivened fans, both at home and abroad. Tens of thousands
of his fans mumble his songs as well as a national anthem. Although rare, there
are incidents where a few have fainted at such concerts. It is to such a
devoted fan base that Teddy Afro releases, today, April 14, 2012, his long anticipated
fourth album, dubbed Tikur Sew, loosely translated as Black Man. Ever since the
release of his controversial and hit album Yasteseryal, in 2005, Teddy Afro has
lived in the minds of his fans for reasons of music and personal tragedy. Of
course, there have been a couple of singles released during this period,
although none were enough to keep his admirers content.
The talk about his plan to
release a new album has been on the offing for some time, now. The making of a
new album dates back few years ago, according to a close friend of the singer.
He often composes some tunes only to throw them away a few days later,
dissatisfied.
Finally, he chose around 25
songs and selected 11 of his favourites, says his friend.
“He changes the lists of the
songs every other week,” the musician friend said. “I do not even know the
songs that are now included on the new album.”
But, an earlier plan to
release the album during Ethiopia’s New Year in September was pushed to
Christmas and finally the eve of Easter, while the title for the album kept
changing from Meharebe to Fiorena and, lastly, to Tikur Sew.
Tikur Sew is dedicated to
Emperor Menelik II, the father of modern-day Ethiopia, who thwarted Italy’s
colonial ambitions over Ethiopia. Indeed, Teddy, in his new song praises
Menelik’s iconic victory at the Battle of Adwa, in March 1986. It is considered
a “turning point in modern African history,” where an army from black Africa
defeated a modern European colonial power for the first time, a historical
significance believed to have inspired many blacks to fight for their freedom.
The flagship song in the new
album, Tikur Sew, was arranged by Abegasu Kibrework Shiota, a respected
composer, producer, and arranger, while Michael Hailu, a rising star of 24
years, playing superb guitar, arranged and composed eight of them. The unofficial
poster on a social networking website had it that other arrangers, such as
Girum Mezmur and Kamuzu Kasa, added their fingerprints to the album. Indeed
Girum Mezmur, cofounder of Afro Sound Band, a band from which Teddy picked his
nom de guerre, accompanied him to Chicago a year and a half ago, to produce the
album.
“He had a plan to make his
album in the United States,” a musician and close friend of Teddy told Fortune.
“He wanted to record the album on a band and studio there.”
The shift was also witnessed
in his choice of record label company. Teddy moved away from his album
distributor, Electra Music Shop, which reportedly paid him around a million
Birr for his last album, to an emerging event organiser and album producer,
Adika Communications & Events Plc and its partner Belema Entertainment.
Having successfully organised and promoted Teddy Afro’s music concert in Addis
Abeba in 2009 and his subsequent North American tour, Adika inked a
distribution rights and promotion deal with the singer, two months ago, for
what industry sources disclose was a contract worth 4.5 million Br.
The deal enables Adika to
distribute Teddy’s album throughout the country and to the international
market, with the first round consisting of 300,000 audio cassettes and half a
million CDs. This should have a total turnover of close to 15 million Br in
sales.
Ashenafi Zeleke, general
manager of Adika Communications & Events Plc, declined to confirm how much
his company agreed to pay Teddy, citing the confidentiality clause in the
contract. The millions that Teddy is to bag from the deal is what no other
singer has ever been paid in the Ethiopian music industry.
Teddy and Adika have also
jointly signed an exclusive sponsorship deal with Meta Abo Brewery SC, a
domestic brewery, which Diageo Plc, the world's biggest liquor maker, recently
acquired for 225 million dollars. Meta’s sponsorship has been slotted on radio
and TV commercials, while its logos have appeared on billboards, posters, and
promotional fliers.
Adika prepared 50,000
posters and 20 different types of billboards, which have lately dominated the
scenes of Addis Abeba’s major avenues, including the giant steel structures
erected by Alliance Media, a leading provider of outdoor advertising across
Africa.
“After the release of the
album, we will add 10 more billboards in Addis Abeba and one billboard each in
the main towns of the country,” Ashenafi disclosed to Fortune.
Adika has developed
strategies to minimise piracy. In addition to the existing distribution
channels, the company has a plan to introduce sales points, producing CD racks
and putting them in supermarkets, cafes, and selected outlets in regional
towns.
It also has plans to
capitalise on the features of the original album to attract more buyers. The
cover of the album and pictures of Teddy have an appealing impact on the
audience, the company believes.
The aggressive marketing and
promotion move goes as far as introducing the sales of ringtones, available for
mobile users through a local SMS service provider, 4MT Mobile Technology Plc.
The company, a subsidiary of US-based 4Info Inc, prepared a ringtone platform,
after it started its operations in Ethiopia in August 2011, but remained
inactive until Adika approached them with Teddy Afro’s songs.
“We hardly hesitated to
begin the service with Teddy Afro’s songs,” Samuel Alemayheu, general manager
of 4MT, told Fortune. “He is not your average artist that needs persuasion to
convince people.”
Teddy’s Afrikaye, translated
as My Africa, is the first song officially offered for sale to mobile
subscribers who dial 8080, in Ethiopia. For a price of two Birr for each
download, 4MT uploaded the song to a website and opened it for downloads last
Sunday afternoon. To date, 4MT has sent Text message to eight per cent of the
11 million ethio telecom subscribers.
“The response is
overwhelming,” says Samuel. “By Sunday night, there were 55,000 hits.”
The number doubled in two
days. 4MT expects the number of ringtone downloads to reach two million within
a few days of the release. The company has prepared 35-second versions of an
additional four songs, released everyday, starting from Wednesday, disclosed
Samuel.
The IT company will also
introduce another pioneering service for Teddy’s fans. It plans to make Teddy’s
photos available on the release date of the album, as wallpapers for mobiles
and smartphones. Four video clips of the new album, from 30 seconds to a minute,
will go online.
In all of these platforms
and products available, 4MT targets reaching 20pc of mobile subscribers in
Ethiopia that can access the Internet, using their gadgets. Subscribers with
mobile devices able to access the Internet account 76pc of the ethio telecom
customer base, according to industry estimates.
4MT and Adika also devised a
way of collecting views from Teddy’s fans through calls made to 8080. They
choose a single word and invite his fans to send comments to Teddy, Samuel told
Fortune. Such comments will be collected and delivered to the artist through
Adika.
Adika’s Ashenafi is “amazed”
at the pace of ringtone downloads as well as forwarded comments.
“It is one way of promoting
the album and maximising your revenues,” says Ashenafi. “It is a good start.
Actually, it is going well.”
By midday, Wednesday, 4,500
fans had sent their messages to the singer.
Some of Teddy’s fans and a
number of players in the music industry question the phenomenal promotional
drive. Taking into consideration the singer’s established name in the music
industry, such promotions are perhaps too “exaggerated,” many agree.
Teddy’s fans include those
who are anxious about an emerging expectation to high to meet, while others
fear that such a marketing onslaught might rescue a work that is “below par.”
Others are not comfortable seeing it and find it offensive that an adored
singer associates himself with an alcoholic drink on his promotional posters
and billboards.
Those in the music industry
are critical of the manner in which promoters released a couple of his songs
from the new album, in their bid to create anticipation among members of the
public. Available on YouTube website and played by FM stations in the city, the
singles are characterised by critics as “poor in quality.”
“I am embarrassed to hear
what he has released, so far,” a music critic said. “They are below Teddy’s
capacity and the standards he has attained.”
But, the songs so far played
are a “mix of completed work and recorded melodies during practice time,” a
guitarist told Fortune.
Nonetheless, Des Yemil
Sekay, loosely translated as Sweet Agony, the first official single released
from Teddy’s upcoming album, is not immune to criticism. The singer used too
much tuner, an audio processor employed to alter pitch in vocal and
instrumental performances, according to an acclaimed music critic. Teddy’s
pitch in the single is “imperfect” and that showed a lack of sufficient
practice, he said.
“A vocalist needs freedom to
interpret his music before he goes to recording,” the critic told Fortune.
“Teddy recorded these songs only with patterns, lacking harmony. That is why
the songs seem devoid of life.”
If the single released last
week is to serve as any indication, the public would be better off not
expecting anything new or even a unique voice, says the critic.
Perhaps, not surprisingly,
any of such shortcomings are only visible to an adept ear and would have little
impact on the market.
“The audience loves Teddy,”
the critic admits.
He recalls the long queue he
saw on the third day of the release of Yasteseryal - literally translated as
Redemption, an album that remained at the top of music shops’ shelves for seven consecutive
months.
He is from Merkato, and he
knows how to sell himself and when to say what, according to a music expert
with many years of teaching experience at Yared Music School, now under Addis
Abeba University.(AAU)
“He is a man of intellect,
if you will,” says the musician from Yared.
Indeed, Teddy is many things,
all at the same time. He is a vocalist as much as he is a lyrics writer, a
musician as much as he is an activist promoting and taking positions on issues
of public interest.
"If there is someone
who understands the business side of music in Ethiopia, that would be
Teddy," agrees Elyas Mulu Kiros, commenting on a blog,
One of the many blogs and
social media websites enthusiastic about the new album, the owner of this blog
highlighted fives reasons why people should buy the album. Teddy invokes
emotions, He is an activist and a critic he takes risks against copyright
piracy; and it is his first album since his relase from jail.
His arrest, in 2008, and
subsequent conviction by a Federal High Court on manslaughter charges for a
hit-and-run crime is still viewed by his fans as a deliberate concoction by his
detractors.
Adika’s Ashenafi
acknowledges popular affection for Teddy Afro, who is very illusive for the
media. He has been unavailable for interviews, despite days of effort by
Fortune while developing this story.
The pop singer has produced
good music, which he projects to be an instant “hit,” Ashenafi, however,
believes.
More than a popular
vocalist, Teddy Afro is a symbol of defiance of the rich and the powers that be
and a populist activist, invoking inspiration among many of his young fans that
are rather restless. He is very conscious of his association with events and
personalities resented by popular views, while he is perceptive in listening to
the pulse of the many.
A research paper by Kristin
Skare Orgeret (PhD), associate professor at Oslo & Akershus University
College in Norway, which analysed Teddy Afro’s last album in the context of
political discourse, discovered that the singer is clever enough “in taking the
stock of the nation’s pulse” and winning people’s hearts.
Titled, When Will the
Daybreak Come? Popular Music and Political Processes in Ethiopia, the paper
stated that, in a socially conscious manner, music can be used as a vehicle for
conveying messages and may play a role in fragmenting and contesting political
authority. The writer sees several of the tracks in the album dubbed
Yasteseryal as lucid examples of a popular voice challenging the ruling
political discourse.
“Although some of the texts,
at least from an outsider’s perspective, do not seem very radical or
politically challenging, the songs apparently hit a national nerve at a
decisive moment in Ethiopian history,” writes Kristin in her paper published in
2008 in Nordicom Review, a journal prepared by Nordic Research on Media &
Communications. “The symbolic value of the songs was probably as important as a
source of popular and political resistance, as were the actual lyrics.”
Hardly is it, thus,
surprising to see the Ethiopian music critic attribute Teddy’s popularity
mainly to the singer’s “revolutionary messages and related activities.”
I have no doubt that Teddy
has talent, but I think he is quite
calculative, which makes him a commercial artist, rather than a genuine artist
like people from the past who sang for the sake of singing," says Elyas on
eweketworldpress.com.
Whether a real or pseudo
name, Elyas is perhaps an exception in criticizing Teddy openly. The singer's growing
influence beyond the entertainment industry has created a climate of
apprehension among those who dare to speak out in public and on record during
interviews to criticise him. Almost all in the entertainment industry insist on
talking on condition of anonymity. Some openly admit that they cannot afford to
bear the pressure of the public after they make remarks considered not in his
favour.
Ironically, one of the songs
in Teddy’s new album has a theme about popular fear.
http://www.addisfortune.net
http://www.addisfortune.net
No comments:
Post a Comment