For the larger part of this year, my musical gaze has
slightly shifted from my usual intrigues, a blend of divas, countrymen and rock
stars to a certain Disc jockey who wears a number of other feathers on his hat
that includes, music producing, song writing and remixing and has worked with
several big names in the music world and big music labels. I got fascinated by
a 2011 trace video “titanium” the beat was amazing but more than that, the
narrative of the video was enthralling. It depicted a heightened level of inner
strength that which you can only conjure up from within you. That video
moistened my eyes at the very end and I have since being drawn to the work of
this famous French D.J. “Titanium” has been for me not just a hit trace track
with fancy beat and laudable lyrics, it represents a muse, and each time I
think I am falling I listen to that beat, and I get all revved up like a race
car’s engine.
“Shot me down, but I won’t fall…....…….I am TITANIUM” I
hear those Sia’s words and I soar like something invincible has taken me over
and I am set to face whatever life throws at me. I listen to it on my phone and
on the car stereo and I truly feel like Titanium each time.
Today’s story however, is not about David or Sia, it is
about a great mind that acted out the very words Sia sang while David put the
beat to it. It is the story of a formidable young man who took various shots
and didn’t fall but just kept screaming “fire away” at the top of his lungs in
the just concluded West African MTN Project Fame. A platform I have being in
awe of from the very beginning and a few weeks ago, a brand new season began
with hilarious auditions at different zones but ended on a stunning note and
once again, the phrase came to mind as I watched Adaora and Joseph call the winner,
“the unfathomable twists and turns of life” which I have often chanted on this
blog like a mantra.
I was screaming in my living room alongside my sisters
and my mom, we were all beyond shocked! Bemused and euphoric but I was most of
all humbled and then I remembered that a contestant had performed my favorite D.J’s
song earlier and unequivocally, that song had being adequately demonstrated by
the result of the competition after all. I lapsed into a trance for a short
while as my mind skidded back to the very beginning. There were 17 contestants
in the academy and if you had asked me, I would have wagered my last penny that
Olawale could never be the man standing at the end of the fierce battle but
then, Olawale fought and made his own destiny! He wrote his name on the walls
of fame and now walks in the hallway of fame.
I had a different prediction in the beginning and I
arrived there having judged all the 17 contestants by their prowess, talent,
voice, showmanship, panache and style but like it is written in the holy writ,
surely the race is not to the swift and the remarkable turn of events was based
on the following criteria I had earlier almost trivialized- spirit and
attitude. Everything changed the night the contestants did their traditional
renditions, that night epitomized the death of a man’s strength and the birth
of another man’s resilience.
I rooted for Simon from the very beginning, he had it
all working for him and it happened so effortlessly. His performance was
superb, his delivery was impeccable and most of all, he had SWAGGGGGGGGGG. So
much charisma! In my heart, I had crowned my own winner for project fame season
6.0 and I was simply waiting for the whole world to confirm my prediction alas,
I saw superficially because what makes a man succeed after all isn’t just
SWAAAAAGGGGGGGG! It took something extra, something profound, interred in the
very core of man’s being, the inner strength to keep fighting, the spirit to
blossom in constructive criticism and that was exactly what Olawale showcased. That night Simon was evicted, I saw it
coming. I am no harbinger of doom or emissary of bad tidings but it broke my
heart to see the look of resignation on his face when he again performed Bright
Chimeze with utter Languidity on a stage that was at the moment a battle
field! I shook my head in disappointment
at his lack of guts and will and announced in my living room that his walk on
the MTN Fame hall
