The Lagos edition of the annual Star Mega Jamz held over the weekend with Grammy-award winner, R Kelly, performing to thousands of fans at the Lagos Polo Club grounds. The stage was not properly postioned as the ‘high payers' could not get a good view of the stage proceeding,the projectors erected to beam the concert were further away from the VIP stand and with not too impressive graphics. The important personalities were however compensated with unlimited supply of the lager brand alongside snacks.
The gig did not kick-off till five hours after the scheduled time,to while away time, the organisers brought on a female DJ who with her brilliant skills on the turntable, got the party jumping with hit jams by Nigerians and some from the American Hip-Hop scene. The show finally started with the brand's signature compere, Gbenga Adeyinka,as he introduced dancer ,choreographer and dance instructor, Kaffy as the first performer at about midnight. Kaffy and her dance team however left much to be desired of them. She disappointingly rendered a song which was unknown to anyone in the crowd and despite her very energetic choreography,she deservingly got no applause from the crowd.
The concert then had a series of performance from past and recent winners of the Star Quest; the musical reality TV show also sponsored by the lager brand including Jukebox, Diamonds and the inaugural winners, KC Presh, who ended up setting the tone for the concert.
Donning a golden outfit, the duo (KC Presh)doled out their popular hits in recent years, Diamonds also proved their worth as worthy ambassadors of the Star brand while Jukebox left much room for concern as for what they offer. Gbenga Adeyinka also got the crowd to give a fist salute to the memory of Dagrin who passed away earlier in the year; an artist Adeyinka claimed would have performed at the concert had he lived.
Awesome P-Square Vs disappointing MI
The few displeasures of the concert reached a peak with MI being the most disappointing. The popular rapper brought neither talent nor creativity to the stage where he was all by himself, miming only the first verses off his songs. His upcoming sibling and label mate, Jesse Jags, did very little in rescuing the ‘Choc Bois' stage nightmare , MI took his mediocrity further while trying to be interactive with crowd ,he played tunes from other musicians and asked the crowd who the artistes were. The people's response soon made him to leave the stage in shame.
Along came P Square, fresh from earning the Best Group at the MTV Africa Music Awards. The brothers brought to the stage what a live concert should be, they had a live band with brilliant and electrifying choreography which provoked the first general cheer from across the enormous crowd that morning. They kicked off their performance with the theme tune for the Hollywood movie ‘Mission Impossible' laden with their songs which they adequately oscillated between high Pop and mild and low tempo delivery.
P Square's performance was the epitome of a live performance but "the brothers need to get more creative and invent new choreography as it's not very satisfying to be seeing the same moves at every event they performed," opined a member of the crowd.
A grand entrance
After an unexplained hiatus of thirty minutes probably due to technical hitch, some members of the crowd resorted to sleeping on the floor and chairs. The main act for the night appeared on the stage with massive acoustics, swathed in a shining white ankle length jacket and reeled his classical hits which got virtually everyone up on their feet. With hits spanning over two decades, the Piped Piper, as he is often called, sang numbers from his days in the group ‘Public Announcement' to his penultimate album but disappointedly failed to give the Lagos crowd a feel of his new album ‘Loveletter' released three days to the gig. R Kelly's lewd and sensual lyrics had the audience aptly singing along with the musical icon.
His musical brilliance came to fore when he did a track probably for the ladies in the crowd, asking if "she has a passport ready, because he wants to take someone to America." The eventual lucky girl, who was at the edge of the stage responded to R kelly, screaming ‘‘YES'' and the artiste demanded the lady should be taken after the show to confirm her passport "because I'm gonna take her to America," he said.
Affirming this concert as his second visit to Nigeria, Kelly serenaded the crowd with a variety of his sensual voice,he performed yet another unknown track ‘Twenty-Two' to thank his fans who he said have been very supportive of his career in his twenty-two years stint in the industry. An interesting part of R kelly's performance was his stern warning to a member of the crowd who he spotted as he was about to indiscriminately throw his cup into the air, an act that the host had been condemning all night long. The Chicago born artiste rounded off his hour long, amusing, and interactive performance with the hit track, ‘Happy people'-the original and the remix and this sent the entire audience into a lover's field as everyone held out to a partner to perform the dance steps as seen in the song's video.
Grooving 9ice
With the main act of the night done,most people sought to take their leave but as the next act, 9ice emerged on the stage to perform ‘Street credibility' the departing crowd ran back and the artiste created another massive party scene as everyone got dancing to his various popular hits including ‘Gongo Aso'.His beautiful delivery in Yoruba only added to the night's fun with everyone dancing to its natural beats.
The Mo-hit crew including Dr Sid, Da Prince and Wande Coal, came in after to round off the thrilling concert, all miming their popular tracks which sent the crowd into another round of partying although their performances were devoid of any creativity.
Despite the absence of the likes of Dbanj, Sound Sultan and Timaya that were advertised to be part of the Lagos concert, the 2010 Star Mega Jamz was a huge success amidst tight security with the fans turn-out described as the largest in the ten years of holding the annual gig.
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