Stand Up GH Concert: Good Show, Wrong Emcees

Organizers of the just ended �Stand Up GH� concert, Imajin Advertising, had already proven to the whole Ghana beyond any reasonable doubts that they could indeed compete with leading event organizers in Ghana, even though they are new in the business with... ...their �Legends and Legacy Ball� which featured Charles Kojo Fosu aka Daddy Lumber last year. The �Legends and Legacy Ball� will go down in history as one of the most well organized and well attended events in Ghana in 2011 and the only event that saw two former Presidents; John Agyekum Kufour and J.J. Rawlings and former first lady Nana Konadu Agyemang Rawlings sitting and dancing together. Imajin Advertising set some standards but if the �Stand Up GH� concert which came off inside the Dome at the Accra International Conference last Saturday is anything to compare to their own standard, then they failed this time because of a simple wrong decision they took. Right from initial stage of planning the event, the organizers had issues with the choice of International artistes to headline the concert. Peacefmonline.com investigations revealed that it was supposed to be Sean Kingston and Keri Hilson but Sean Kingston had some outstanding problems with another events company in Ghana and according to sources, Sean Kingston cannot perform again in Ghana until those issues are sorted out. They quickly had to look for a suitable replacement and so YMCMB artiste Bow Wow came into the picture. Publicity for the event started very slowly and intensified as the event date Saturday, May 26, 2012 approached. A carefully selected line up of Ghanaian artistes including; Guru, Kwaw Kese, Mzbel, Edem, Chemphe, Kaaki, Buk Bak and Rana even raised the excitement and interest, for people to want to attend the event. Keri Hilson and Bow Wow touched down in Ghana on Friday May 25 but they refused to attend a welcome party organized in their honour at the Silver Lounge on Friday night, and the organizers didn�t give the media any reason why they were not present when the Ghanaian stars had come to officially welcome them. On the day of the event, attendance picked up rather slowly as most people came after 10pm. The show started with silky voice Chemphe and Rana, who put up a great performance with their dance moves. Everything seemed to be going well until Emcees for the night were announced. Ghanaian actor James Gardiner came on stage first as the main MC and immediately he introduced himself the whole exciting atmosphere in the auditorium and the attitude of the crowd changed. In spite of his experience on Radio at Multimedia, hosting Television Programs and acting experience, good looking James Gardiner didn�t have the flair to drive the crowd right from the beginning, and this affected the whole event. He spoke in a very soft tone on a show which is supposed to be a Hip Hop event, and he clearly showed that he was not cut for that kind of function. He mentioned Majid Michel�s name anytime he walked onto the stage, as though Majid was the only important person in the audience.