Daily Independent (Lagos)
Ifeoma Meze
5 August 2009
interview
Lagos — Oladapo Ojo is the Executive Producer of Rapid Blue Format, the entertainment outfit that introduced ,Don't Forget The Lyrics, TV one of the thrilling TV shows into Nigeria with Zain sponsorship. In this interview with REPORTER, Ifeoma Meze, he explains the origin of the show and what it intends to impact to the public. Excerpts:
Your company brought Don't Forget The Lyrics TV show into the country. How has the business been so far?
Don,t Forget The Lyrics is an international format developed two and a half years ago in the United States. In the last two and half years, it has been licensed to over 35 countries of the world. We are proud to bring the licence ordered for Africa and we are starting with Nigeria.
There have been a lot of reality TV and game shows in order to give back to the society. What makes your own stand out from others?
It is first and foremost a game show. It is a show that takes virtually little out of you. It is a show that lives on your past life. We have all grown up listening to music and music is the food and soul of life so that makes it part of our lifestyle. This is a game show that is waved around remembering lyrics of songs. It tasks you on how much of lyrics of songs you know and that cuts across all kinds of music basically. It is something that tends to compensate all of us on what we have grown up to know. So it is not all about picking up a textbook and reading. It is all about remembering lyrics to 10 hit songs and winning huge amount of money.
So far, what do the winners tend to gain aside money? Is there any kind of intellectual impact to be gained from it?
What it meant to impact is on three levels. First, for you to be a contestant, you don,t really have to have a good voice because we have had other kind of shows that are looking for particular quality. Here, all you need is ability to remember the lyrics to hit songs. So whether you sing them correctly in terms of your voice, it is immaterial. What is critical at this point is to know the lyrics. For the contestant, that is the angle, for the viewers at home, it relives the past old times. We sit down and remember songs that we feel that we must have forgotten. There is a lot point of connection to those who are playing and people that are watching. Most people that are at home also participate when the programme is on. For us it is achieving the set objectives because music is one the things that people of this generation are in love with. So it is a lot easy for them to relate with it.
Why did you people choose Nigeria first in Africa?
The reason we came to Nigeria first is because of Zain. Zain wanted us to start the format from Nigeria, adjudged to be the most populous country in Africa. We found out again that Nigerian music has developed over the years. There are a lot of artistes who have been able to cut across the shores of this country and most of these artistes are young people.
When you were bringing the programme to Nigeria, did you have in mind that it might strive and it might not?
We were not looking at the downside of it because from our research, music is one of the top three things that appeal to most people. It is a show that does not necessarily require you having some skills. We all seem to know lyrics even if one does not have a good voice vis-a-vis the talent of singing.
Since your programme centres on lyrics, what would you say about the kind of lyrics we have in our Nigerian songs?
I found out that most of our hit songs do have a story behind them and that is part of what is critical. We have hit songs in Nigeria like we have in other parts of the world and except you understand the lyrics clearly then you cannot go with the message. Part of what Don,t Forget The Lyrics does is to educate those of us that may not know the exact lyrics of the song because if you have an understanding of the lyrics then, you can understand and even enjoy the song. You will be able to appreciate the song.
Would you say the kind of music we are having now are educating people or doing the opposite?
I think it cuts across the angle that you see the music. You can learn from both end of the equilibrium. I can tell you a good story and you learn from it. I can as well tell you a bad story and you would still learn from it. I am not saying that there is no room for improvement, there is a lot of room for improvement at every level but the bottom line is that there is a lesson to be learnt. An average man would understand that most songs, both Nigerian and foreign are written out of what is seen on the streets.
From your understanding of the lyrics of the old music and the lyrics of the present music, would you say the old is better than the present?
I don,t think so. I think there is an evolution in music and the lyrics and all of that. You will find out that in the old kind of music a lot was put together in terms of background and the message was loaded, whereas, most of the current songs are single-minded messages. They just pick up a message and harp on it. In the older set of songs, we have about four five messages in a particular song. I think that what the artistes are doing more is to respond to need of the society or present situation. For example, it is just like when someone is singing about 419 being bad, 419 did not come into obvious existence till 10-12 years ago. So there is no reason for anybody to have sung about 419 as a theme 20 years ago. I think that music now is evolving to a point where there is a lot of infusion of styles in terms of lyrics. Until recently, a lot of people felt there were few rap artistes in Nigeria but there are many of them.
Are you planning on staying only in Nigeria or you are moving to other parts of Africa?
In terms of the programme, we believe that we would be able to go to other territories in Africa. What we need to do is that wherever we take the format, we will be able to tropicalise it. You will find out that among the hit songs, we have local songs. If by chance we go to Ghana, you will gat to see some Ghanaian songs too.
Have you had challenges since you started?
Of course there are challenges. This is television and at times, you go on set and things don,t work out the way you planned. At times you have a team that you have auditioned and you have a fantastic contestant and when it is time to play the game, the contestant starts to develop cold feet. They are all parts of the challenges but as a producer, one of the things that you are thought to do is that irrespective of those challenges, you must be able to come out with a very good production.
How long is the programme meant to last in Nigeria?
For as long as Nigerians are interested in watching and playing the game, and for as long as Zain is keen on supporting us.
What if Nigeria decides that you people will be in the country for 20 years, how do you then move to other parts of Africa?
Why not, we will stay. We can hold the show in ten countries at the same time. We don,t need to physically move. When I say move, it does not mean that we will leave Nigeria to those other countries physically. We can go set it up the same way the one here is set up.
Are there policies in Nigeria that pose challenges to the programme?
If there are any policies at all, I think they are policies that are tailored to encourage local content as imported finished product, which we all believe will help develop us socially. I think that the policies that we need to encourage are those give opportunity for local content producers, local TV production crew, local sponsors and local contestants to actually express themselves. I feel more comfortable as a person seeing people around turning into stars rather than white faces. I think we need to commend the government and work together to develop our own market, which is the Nigerian entertainment industry.
Since the programme started, no music artistes have been seen as a contestant. Is it restricted to a particular kind of set or is there a way you select them?
It is not restricted to any kind of set. Once you are sixteen and above, you stand a chance of playing a part although there is a process in picking. You have to go through audition to actually know what you are doing. The people that have contested are people that passed through the audition. If you are an artiste and you feel that you have what it takes on the show, you are welcome.
What is the programme meant to achieve through this?
First of all what it intends to achieve is to entertain and also to educate. To entertain is on the large extent because music is part of our life style. The educational aspect is in the fact that there are songs that people think they know the lyrics. You find out that some words sound alike. In some songs, the artiste will say ,some things were meant to, and people sing it as ,some things are meant to,. Most of us what we do is that when we listen to a song for the first time, what we first hear registers in our brain which might not actually be the correct lyric in the song. Through this, you find out that some music don,t actually go out of fashion. They always come by. We encourage people to know the right lyrics to songs to understand the songs better.
As a music person, what kind of music do you listen to?
Funny enough, I am not a music person. I listen to music but I am not too deep into music. I listen to all kinds of music.
If you are asked to pick two or three music artistes in Nigeria, who and who will you pick?
They are all very talented in their own special way. Everybody is trying at different levels of professionalism. There are great artistes in this country. They have not gotten to their wit,s end in terms of creativity. There are still a lot of opportunities for each of them. They are supposed to be all my friends so I prefer not to name anybody.
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