At Aspire Music Festival, Zenith Bank Customers Party Hard
Vanessa Obioha
The teeming crowd that converged at Harbour Point Event Centre in Victoria Island, Lagos last weekend for the Zenith Bank Aspire Music Festival showed no signs of vacating the venue after the last performance. They were still sweating on the dance floor, moving their legs and hips to the beats and rhythms that flowed from the DJ’s wheels. The self-acclaimed ‘energy god’ Do2dtun who hosted the show alongside comedian Kenny Blaq showed no signs of drawing the curtains. He kept the adrenaline pumping with his hyping skills, encouraging the happy customers to party like they never had.
To a large extent, the hosts were the life and soul of the festival. They proved to be a wise choice for the financial institution that aims to provide lifestyle experiences for its teeming customers. For the duration of the event, Do2dtun and Kenny kept the ecstatic crowd on their feet. Whether Do2dtun was taking them down memory lane with some oldies or Kenny performing his signature comedy music skits, the crowd were simply entertained. A notable skit from Kenny that left many in awe of his ingenuity was when he performed his version of the late pop legend Michael Jackson’s smashing hit ‘Billie Jean’ featuring Zlatan. Another favourite of the crowd was when he sampled how an industrious gospel ‘Alaba’ musician can remix the popular ‘Zanku’ track to fit into his own genre. That performance elicited laughter from the crowd.
Being the first edition of the music festival which is part of the lined up activities for the second edition of the bank’s lifestyle event ‘Style by Zenith’, a rich lineup of artistes were featured. They include Olamide, Phyno, Flavour, Niniola, Rema, and Mayorkun. Each of these artistes came on stage with their A-game.
Niniola set the party rolling with her performance. She waltzed into the stage with four curvy female dancers, dressed in a black bike shorts and a lemon jacket. Starting off with her hit track ‘Sicker’ from her 2017 debut album ‘This is Me’, she sampled her dance moves. From there on, it was a dancing galore. Her feisty dance moves fetched claps and cheers. But that was not all the ‘Boda Sadiq’ crooner got. A member of the audience gave her a pencil portrait drawing of herself which she delightfully showed the crowd. An enthusiastic female fan who couldn’t hide her excitement came on stage to show her loyalty. Niniola gladly indulged her.
Taking things a notch higher, she invited a member of the audience to perform her song ‘Designer’ and later, had a dancing competition. Her performance attested to her ability to swoon the crowd to her beat. They begged her for an encore but her allotted time was up.
Her performance was followed by the Mavin Records new poster boy Rema, whose entrance didn’t meet the required expectations. For some unknown reason, the young artiste decided to conceal his identity with an orange mask. The audience were confused by his act and wondered about the motive behind it. His veneer also drew the ire of the organisers. One of the coordinators kept talking to someone on the phone that they should tell the artiste to remove the mask or leave the stage. By this time, the founder of the bank, Jim Ovia was already seated at the VIP area, surrounded by cronies and security guards. Whether he was unhappy about the artiste style or not, his employees made sure that everything was carried out as planned.
Rema might be the new kid on the block with his unique blend of melodies but on stage, it took a while to swoon this particular audience. Not even when he performed the raving hit ‘Boulevard’ from his latest EP, the crowd didn’t express any fervour. Only few attempted to sing along. Their lukewarm reception indicated that the fresh-faced 19 year-old’s genre-bending style is not fully embraced by all. Not until he played his popular afro-pop tunes like ‘Dumebi’ and the Bollywood influenced hit ‘Iron Man’ did the crowd started to tap their feet and throw their hands in the air.
Whatever impression Rema must have made on the audience was quickly forgotten the moment the self-acclaimed ‘Mayor of Lagos’ Mayorkun came on stage. The crowd was thrown into a frenzy when he bounced in, singing ‘Mind’, his collaborative effort with Davido, Dremo and Peruzzi. His set also featured songs such as ‘Eleko’ and ‘Mama’ and the crowd sang along with enthusiasm.
It was during his performance that the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi arrived at the event, joining Ovia at the VIP section.
Although Olamide who was ushered in by Phyno’s performance of ‘Fada Fada’ closed the night with a mix of his old and new vibes, it was Flavour who stole the show away. Immediately he got on stage, the ambience became charged. In his usual manner, he kicked off with ‘Finally’, the Masterkraft produced track that also featured Ghanaian rapper Sarkodie. Known for performing with a live band, Flavour smoothly segued to a saxophonic version of his popular love song ‘Ada Ada’. A saxophonist and a group of dancers in cultural costumes joined him for this performance. He switched to a fast tempo when he performed ‘Adamma’ and maintained it in the next song ‘Shake’. He engaged the crowd during this performance, asking them to open and close their hands in a suggestive manner.
Flavour displayed his dexterity with the manner in which he rendered his set. Each song performed was carefully and effortlessly done, and elicited screams and shouts from the crowd. As an entertainer, he knew how to whet the musical appetite of his fans. For instance, before he performed his raving hit ‘Nwa Baby’, he sang the naughty lines in the song that depicted the up and down motion of a sexual act. Even the Minister found himself glued to the stage, watching the artiste mesmerised the crowd. Flavour finally closed his set with the inspiring gospel song ‘Most High’.
Indeed, the Aspire Music Festival was a success for Zenith Bank, not only because of the artistes it paraded but also the fact that the event which was only open to staff and customers of the bank witnessed a large gathering from non-Zenith customers who for the love of music and entertainment, opened an account with the bank just to attend the event.
