It was his moment of glory. That career-defining moment where he was to seal the release of his new project, and begin the long journey towards promoting it.
Iyanya had worked hard to be ready for this moment. The good folks at Mavin Records had sweated, cut the deals, and prepared themselves for a celebration of another achievement. “Signature” EP was already in the bag, and filtering through different digital stores into the phones of millions of fans across the globe.
On iTunes, people scrambled to get a taste of the new Iyanya. Instagram was popping with photos of the project being uploaded by every industry person and music enthusiast. And the arms race had begun among media houses to announce that the project had dropped.
But somewhere in Lagos, in a restaurant and popular event venue, Iyanya was struggling to keep his celebratory performance alive. He was experiencing trouble with the poor quality of the sound, and as he urged the band to sing encouragement to the event technical crew to tweak his microphone, we all knew that this was going to be a long night.
“Fix the sound, fix the sound,” he chanted, and the band, made up of three eager backup singers, repeated it in unison. “Fix the sound.” Iyanya was their leader. And when he struggled, they struggled.
“Fix the sound.”
The date is Thursday, March 30, 2017, and the venue is Hardrock Café. I have just finished watching Iyanya struggle through his headlining set, at the launch of his new EP, “Signature.” Everything on the night had gone well. Don Jazzy led his Mavin army into the building. Iyanya's handlers,Temple Management Company, had their squad of lieutenants working extra hard to ensure that they had all their bases covered.
But guess what? The sound system looked them in the eye and said “Today would not be perfect.”
After being preceded by a number of performers including Frankeyz and Jeff, Iyanya stepped on to the stage to rapturous applause. And the instant he grabbed the microphone to launch into his opening song ‘Celebrate’, he knew there something wrong. The mic emitted a disruptive din, and the balance between the instruments was off.
“Fix the sound, fix the sound,” he chanted, and the band, made up of three eager backup singers, repeated it in unison. “Fix the sound.”
But the sound refused to fix itself after multiple trials. This threw Iyanya off his balance and swagger.
He resorted to giving random shoutouts, his weakened morale evident for all to see. And although he pulled off all the different tricks in the books, to give the crowd a great show, the sound held a ‘screw you’ finger up. He rolled his waist, GGB Dancers came in to provide sexy relief, and things got intense when he honored his late mother.
“Fix the sound”.
His performance was a struggle, which was embodied by the failure of the lead guitarist to shine, as Iyanya kept switching the focus to him.
That sound refused to behave. It wrecked his show. It ruined all that he had planned by dropping the quality of the experience for a huge chunk of the concert.
But by the time he rolled into ‘Up 2 Sumting’, and Dr Sid joined onstage for a collaboration, everything clicked. The sound had been fixed, and Iyanya was himself again.
Even the lead guitarist found his mojo. And treated everyone to a rejuvenating guitar riff.
In the end, everyone walked away, remembering what would have been a great show. Iyanya’s set had partly flopped. And it was not his fault. Neither was it the fault of Mavin Records, or Temple Management. No one was to blame, except the people who handled the sound.
Fix the sound. Fix the sound.
[pulseng]
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