Why Iyanya Flopped At VGMA

Last Saturday, the annual Vodafone Ghana Music awards took place and as was the expectation, there was a long line of coveted musicians billed to perform.

Amongst them was Iyanya, the singer of the hit song ‘Kukere’. Iyanya is well known for his energetic and electrifying performances coupled with scantily dressed girls (dancers) shaking their ‘bum bum’ to an overly excited female crowd.

As such, I’ve never questioned Iyanya’s ability to move and shake the crowd; judging by his past performances at shows both home and abroad. I was expecting the ladies to be all over him as I had seen over and over again.

However a very surprising thing happened; Iyanya failed terribly to move the crowd. Tried as he did, the crowd remained impassive at his antics. The problem was not that Iyanya did not perform well; in fact he did everything possible to connect with the crowd but failed woefully.

He danced, wriggled his waist, and even called out actress Yvonne Okoro to join him but the crowd remained unresponsive. It was just a few members of the audience that got up to dance to his tunes.

After thinking about what could have caused Iyanya to lose that much of support from his fans, I realised I should put together 3 key lessons I believe every musician including himself can learn

1. Clean up your public image: Sometimes it is not just about making hit songs, or showing off your 6 packs to the ladies. A lot of times, what the public thinks of you can go a long way to determine the success or otherwise of your career.

Last year, Iyanya was in the news for having dated Ghanaian actress Yvonne Nelson. The relationship however turned sour when Yvonne realised she was being ‘played’ by Iyanya. She later came out to share details of their relationship. And it didn’t help matters that Iyanya had a line in his song which stipulated that all he wanted from the actress was her waist.

Instantly Iyanya was labelled as a womaniser/Casanova. Even though at the time the news broke out, it increased his popularity, Iyanya is now infamous for his actions. At the awards show yesterday, he tried pulling out Yvonne Okoro to dance with him but she ignored him. I am sure she did not want to be associated with a known womaniser.

2. Change up your style: Watch any of Iyanya’s performances and one thing is very common: Scantily dressed dancers shaking their bodies in a very sexual manner. Initially, it can be interesting but it really does get tiring after sometime.

I could even predict his next dance move because it was the same style he was giving us again. Comparing to the other male musicians who also performed last night (Davido, Sarkodie etc) they were able to move the crowd without using female dancers dressed provocatively. It would be great to see Iyanya perform just raw music without sexualising women to get attention from the crowd.

3. Do not ride on your past glories: Iyanya performed 3 songs last night, and to be honest, these were songs that we had heard and seen him perform over and over again. ‘Kukere’ sure is a hit song but it has been out for some time now and I am sure it cannot compete with newer songs that were being performed by others.

As a musician, there is an immense pressure to stay on top by releasing hit song after hit song because the industry is very competitive. When you don’t do that and you keep performing your old songs over and over again especially when the song is a club tune, you begin to lose out on your fans…