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The year 2020 witnessed alot of downturns which greatly affected the global economy. Some of the big losers were the music and entertainment industry which witnessed a significant decrease in demand due to the coronavirus outbreak. Before the global pandemic, these two sectors used to be two of biggest employers of labour in the world but the case is different today.
Speaking to Bright ‘Richie’ Okosodo about his take on the pandemic, the lockdown and its effect on the entertainment industry. He stated that before the global economic meltdown, Nigerians, home and abroad were already growing weary of listening to substandard songs recorded to follow or suit the trends of the day. He said most people crave good music with creative content which means that in spite of the crisis; the quality of content churned out by these creatives is the major reason why the crisis affected the entertainment space the way it did.
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Richie went to say that music crosses borders without visas and so it’s easy for a song to become a commercial hit as long as it has a stand out message embedded and great content. He reiterated that music lovers will listen/stream good music irrespective of the artiste’s country of origin or the language the music was originally made in.
When asked on what the solution to these problems would be in order to restore Nigerian music to its global audience; he responded that most Nigerian artistes need good orientation and mental training in order to become grounded creatively in the music and entertainment industry. “Some of our artistes today need to spend time on themselves honing and improving their craft towards becoming globally accepted brands. They need to improve their songwriting and singing skills too”. He said.
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Richie went further to state that despite being based in Ghana, his passion and love for Nigerian music and music business is still burning strong and this is why he intends to host a free online entertainment and events seminar for events planners/organizers and artiste managers. This would help realign their mindset and in turn reposition the Nigerian entertainment practitioners and industry. Richie said, most artistes today are just looking for that one song to become a global brand without working to become a house hold name which requires hard work and most of all consistency.
Bright ‘Richie’ Okosodo is a Nigerian born events organizer based in Ghana. He is the founder and CEO of BAHAMAS Entertainment, an event and show promotion outfit and Bahamas Collection, a clothing and accessories brand.
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