Big Brother Naija (BBN) is the biggest reality show in Nigeria as it draws religious followership across several countries. Over the years, BBN has hosted several creatives amongst which are emerging artists who intended to use it as a springboard for their careers.
Background: So far, the intersection between upcoming artists and BBN has not been a rosy union even though three artists have emerged as winners of the highly celebrated show.
A painful shortage of talent, burdensome fan expectations, and an unwarranted disregard are some of the factors that can be fingered for being responsible for the high number of previous BBN housemates who have gone on to launch disappointing music careers.
As the seventh installment of what might be Africa’s biggest reality show kicks off, it might be worth considering why emerging artists have continued to struggle despite enjoying an ample presence on the screens of millions of viewers.
Why emerging artists choose to go for BBN: For emerging artists looking to push their careers any viable platform that spotlights them is eagerly embraced.
BBN is an international platform that offers instant albeit in some instances, a brief moment of international fame. And for upcoming artists, this is millions of potential listeners that can dramatically and exponentially alter the course of their careers.
The disaster class of Afrobeats’ BBN Contingent: So far, BBN has hosted a number of artists who appeared on the show with the intention of advancing their music careers.
Efe, Uriel, Bisola, Marvis, Teddy A, Laycon, Tricky Tee, Coco Ice, Vee, J Paul, Niyi, and White Money are some of the previous housemates who have pursued music careers pre and post-BBN.
The latest addition to this list is Bryann and Eloswag who will be hoping to successfully turn the attention of the Nigerian audience to their talents.
From the Afrobeats contingent that has graced the colorful BBN Mansion, the outcome has been simply abysmal with Laycon’s success being an exception to the norm.
Selling Music to an uninterested audience: If we are to go by precedence, getting the audience to notice their music and even give a track or two some listen to is one thing. However, successfully sustaining the audience’s attention post-BBN is a whole different story.
The majority of the audience who follows BBN are there to be entertained by love affairs, skirmishes, and fun activities, and they are certainly not there to discover a new musical talent as there are reality shows for that.
To sell music to a largely uninterested audience, a housemate must be able to remarkably stand out while also having good music to impress the audience and inspire some followership.
Laycon was successfully able to deliver on this criteria while other housemates have just been incapable of making decent music worth listening to. While White Money and Efe were popular enough to win the show, their music is incredibly short of the standard you will expect from mildly talented emerging artists.
For some other housemates such as Vee, it’s not really a question of talent but a difficult task of getting an incredibly reluctant and uninterested audience to turn their attention from her personal life to her music.
The viewers’ double standards: It’s necessary that we also discuss the viewers’ unfair double standards when it comes to artists.
The viewers are fast to write off artists who graced the show to promote their work and in cases when they acknowledge the artists’ talent, they hold them to ridiculously high standards and swiftly turn against them.
While some artists who have graced the show make it impossible to make a case for them due to their poor music, the audience has been brutal even on artists making decent music.
One would expect that an audience who adores and pamper housemates who ostensibly lack any convincing talent would be patient and supportive of emerging artists. However, BBN has so far proven to be a largely unfruitful ground for emerging artists.
Is Afrobeats a viable ground for emerging talent?: The massive publicity and life-changing opportunities that come with BBN make it a viable platform for any creative including emerging artists.
To be honest, BBN isn’t the best platform and neither is it an effective vehicle with which to promote music. The mass audience’s apathy and unfair expectation make it a tricky and difficult thumping ground for Afrobeats’ contingent.
However, BBN remains a good vehicle for emerging artists as there aren’t a lot of platforms that offer such an incredible level of exposure and massive opportunities in such a short period.
At the end of the day, what is most important is that artists with the right personality and the music to back it up get the opportunity.
