Don’t believe the hype – Edem advises young musicians

Multiple award-winning Ghanaian Rapper, Edem, together with ace Ghanaian Publicist/Author, Elorm Beenie had a very successful music workshop in the Volta Region on Sunday, April 2, 2017.

Touching on the topic “Artiste Bookings & Performances”, both gentlemen schooled (Budding) Musicians, Artiste Managers, Event Organizers and On Air Personalities in the Region for over 2 hours.

Edem who spoke extensively on the topic was very excited about the growth of new music talents in the Region and how ‘hungry’ they are to reach the top. Below is a brief culled from Edem’s one hour presentation at the seminar:

“Impact is most important than doing multiple songs. Order of performance is key. Do your ground research. The crowd you meet each time is a good of diverse people so you always have to go the extra mile to impress them. Regardless of the crowd size, make sure give the best performance. Don’t condemn yourself when you flop on a show. Give people the value for their money. Don’t be intimidated by fans when they are giving you ‘away’ or they don’t like your showmanship; instead, find a way to psych them up to cheer you up by finding a good way to better your act. You have to steal the spotlight for yourself as an upcoming act. Your performance can kill or promote your song depending on your own approach. When people don’t know (about) your song or music, it is about your artistry and performance – which when done well will win your more fans and appeal. Don’t believe in the hype, but use the hype. Using the hype means you are building something you want to become that will come to benefit you. Focus on building your craft through social media instead of commenting on silly posts on social media. Music is like any other job, it takes time to grow. Network is good but it has to be good. Don’t give any industry person pressure. Don’t be bitter for your things that don’t work, you are delaying your future success. Your performances makes you last longer than your songs. Believe in what you have than what you don’t. use the CLAMP formula (i.e) C-oncept, L-yrics, A-ppearance, M-usic, P-erformance.”

Elorm Beenie, the main Host of the programme (before Edem spoke), also touched on some key areas of Booking & Performance. He took them through the various steps of Booking an Artiste, the need for Event Producers/Coordinators to always keep a Running Order, how Artistes/Managers to put a Technical Rider together amongst other key things.

The music workshop was started by Elorm Beenie a month ago as a platform for mainstream artistes (especially from the Volta Region) to interact with their talents back home. It’s the 2nd time the seminar was run within a month.

“We had a very successful show and I am personally happy Edem came through to help out and directly speak to these budding artistes. They need these stepping stones to help them make the right decisions on the administrative side of the music, it’s not just about hitting the booth to drop lyrics or doing interviews or shooting music videos or performing them. It’s a whole industry and we need to educate the budding ones a lot; that’s the best way we can produce very good musicians that can last the test of time. Next date and venue will be communicated. We’re running this in the Volta Region now but I look forward to partnering other people in other Regions as well to help educate our musicians, especially the upcoming ones. The attendance was very encouraging; the 1st seminar had 37 attendees and this 2nd one had over 60 – that’s an improvement I think”, Elorm Beenie added.

Elorm Beenie is the Author of African novel “Love Myelitis”. Apart from online blogging he mainly does, he also doubles as Official Publicist for Celebrity Musicians, Edem, Stonebwoy, Samini, Rocky Dawuni, Kofi Kinaata, just to name a few.