As at the time of going to press, music maestro Kojo Antwi was trailing behind P-Square and M.I. on cyber polls accrued at the BET website, created for global voting to pick the Best International Act at this year's Black Entertainment Television Awards, scheduled for New York on June 27.
Kojo Antwi has been nominated for the BET Best International Act Award alongside P-Square and M.I. from Nigeria; HHP from South Africa, Sade (U.K), Estelle (U.K), Chipmunk, K'Naan (Somalia), Corrine Bailey and Dizzee Rascal (U.K).
Kojo Antwi tells Hi Newspaper in an interview on Monday that, “I see only Sade (UK) as my biggest threat in this category. If the award were meant for the best newcomer, then P-Square and M.I stood better chance of winning. Fortunately, it is about the musician's total persona and how they have been doing over the year”.
Kojo's mention of Sade is justifiable given that she won her first Grammy in 1986 with her very first album. She was also inducted in the Order of the British Empire (OBE) as an officer in 2002 by the Queen based on her impact to the music scene in Britain.
Still on the awards, Kojo said, “Winning the awards is not the big thing; the fact that the first time America is recognizing artistes outside their country, and been nominated, is. Over the years, they have been imposing their kind of music on us. This year, they are awarding artistes outside America and that is the 'big deal.”
Kojo is among three Ghanaian musicians (Becca and Shasha) picked to perform at the World Cup in South Africa. “It is a joy to be given an opportunity to perform at the world cup since it is a platform seen by the whole world. Also, I am performing on a day before a Black Stars' game and that means a lot to me”.
Over the past few years, Kojo's music has hit drastic down surge. His “Mwaah” album sold just over 300,000 units. Considering that his gigantic music status and the fact that his old albums easily sold over a million copies. Luckily, last years “Adiepena” has so far received over 800,000 downloads on iTunes- the biggest by a Ghanaian artiste so far.
He attributes the poor album sales to the general poor sales in the world music market. “Particularly, my music takes time to sink and that favours me because I have much longer time to be on the market. This year will be even better especially with my upcoming US and UK tours in summer.”
Kojo Antwi is difficult to grab for an interview, he only talks to the media when he wants to, and that may have affected his sales, but he disagrees: “If I wasn't media-friendly, I wouldn't be doing this interview in the first place. I am not media-shy; I prefer to talk to the media only when I have a new album or a pending show. I know one thing, when you talk too much; you lie, so I allow my music to talk for me. Instead of going out there to brag, I allow my music to do the bragging.”
Meanwhile, Kojo Antwi would be going on a summer tour in the U.S in July. His road map looks like this: New York (Saturday July 3 2010), Atlanta (Saturday July 10 2010), Maryland (Saturday July 24 2010), Worcestor (Saturday July 31 2010), Columbus Ohio (Saturday august 7 2010) and Chicago (Saturday august 14 2010)
He will break his US tour to give a gig in the UK (London) on July 17th. In the meantime, you can log on to www.bet.com to vote for Kojo Antwi, something we at Hi Newspaper would appreciate so much.
