GHANA MEETS NAIJA !!!!!

Ghana Meets Naija was a symbolic union of the these two, in many ways, rivaling, countries. It was a truly a celebration of the rhythms and uniqueness of African Music, Ghana and Naija style!

Organized by Empire Entertainment, the show featured artistes from both countries, and allowed both a playground to display and perform to the best of their abilities.

The evening was set off by DJ Black who, unfailingly mixed his beats and roused the crowd to a frenzy. This set the perfect mood for Keche to start off as the first set of artistes for the night. Stay J, following Keche, maintained the high of the crowd in army combo. Guru carried his performance off in a graduation garb, perhaps to mark his graduation to live performance for a huge audience and he did it wonderfully. He ended his performance by cracking the audience up on a good joke.

Efya

The beautiful Alicia Keys of Ghana, Efya serenaded her audience to jazzy rhythms and songs that just showed off the magical play field her voice could explore. Dressed in a figure-hugging purple jumpsuit with sparkly sleeves, she took her audience back to the old school rhythms, rich Ghanaian Hi-life, ending her performance sotto voce with her emotional “Little Things” which drew the ladies to their feet in shared empathy.

2face

From Naija were featured Nice, Naeto-C, Jay Martins, and 2face. Nice had Ghanaians singing “I’m from Naija” and everyone dancing. Naeto-C had everyone’s palms up with his hit song “10/10” and enjoying the creativity of his beats. 2face had the audience sitting at the ends of the platform, struggling to get close to the BET award-winner. To top off his good performance, he caused the ladies to swoon with his classic, “African Queen”.

The night was an outstanding night in general and made more outstanding with the engaging performances by Castro and Asamoah Gyan, Sarkodie, Ruff & Smooth, and D Cryme. Asamoah Gyan’s performance pulled Sule Muntari, Prince Tagoe and others to the stage to join him in dancing. Dr Cryme really proved that if you’ve got the ladies on your side, you’ve got everyone on your side. Sarkodie tongue-twisted his lyrics the way only he knows how and VIP finished off with a bang. They drove the already frenzied crowd wilder performing a few of their hit tracks. Collaboration between VIP and R2bees put a remarkable end to the energetic night.

Dr Cryme

VIP

There was such a huge crowd of people that at a point, people had no seats, despite spending quite  lot of money for their tickets. There was a stampede to enter, later in the night, after people were blocked by the bouncers from entering. 

Important people such as Nana Konadu Agyeman Rawlings, the CEO of Ovation, CEO of Charterhouse, Stephen Appiah, Ayew and many others graced the night. Major hitches in the program were the uncomfortable silences of the audience when artistes performed songs they did not know. It is quite common knowledge that Ghanaians at such shows, would not dance to songs they do not know.There was also a very ugly fist fight in the VIP seating which all but drew another crowd to pull the wrestlers apart. Luckily, no teeth were missing or any garments torn. Things went back to the best normal could be. 

The MC of the night KOD did very well to rouse his audience from time to time in outfits from his label, 1957. He made sure to include a small dance competition between two members of the audience. Both were females and one truly showed her knowledge of the "Asamoah Gyan dance" combining a dexterity of her legs and interesting hand movements. The other contestant showed off the flexibility of her hips and waist and caused many a man to shout a powerful "Eeei!" However, the first girl won, decided by the excited audience.

It was general agreement that if it was a competition, Ghana would have won. A Nigerian in the audience gave the score as 3-2, against Nigeria. Ayew gave it a 5-0 against Naija.

Music is a powerful medium and a universal language, and Ghana meets Naija proved it so. Kudos to Empire Entertainment!