Entertainment
UG authorities have no issues with Shatta Wale – Dean
The Dean of Students Affairs at the University of Ghana, Professor Rosina Kyeremanten, has responded to allegations regarding the cancellation of Shatta Wale’s performance at the Reunion Rave Artistes Night organised by the TF Hostel.
In an interview with Radio Univers, she told Campus Express that the organisers of the programme did not follow the right procedure while submitting their proposal for the event.
“It is not true there was approval for the artiste night (Reunion Rave) for TF. Normally, what happens is that if any event is going to be organized in any hall a request for approval is sent to my Office (Dean’s Office) with an outline of the program they intend to organise. What they said they were going to do on Saturday was Karaoke Night and so we gave approval. As far as I am concerned there is a big difference between a Karaoke Night and Artiste Night,” she noted.
According to the Dean, the authorities needed prior notice of the nature of the event to help in providing adequate security.
“The University has no issues with Shatta Wale. The University doesn’t have anything to do with Shatta Wale. Limann Hall sent a letter requesting approval for their programs including Artist Night and I forwarded it to PRO VC because of the ban on public gatherings and the final approval comes from him. I didn’t even know who was on the bill to perform until I later saw their flyers and it was Stonebwoy so I called the President (of the Hall) to assure me of the security. Their letter had to go to the Legon Police District Command and I also asked them to get extra security,” Professor Rosina said.
She further noted that “when you are having an artiste night, it comes with a lot of implications: Security and others. So we need to ensure there is enough security and that is why you need approval from the University Authority. Mind you there is still a ban on students gathering so you cannot just get up and bring an artiste like Shatta Wale without the adequate and necessary arrangements being made.”
Statement from the organisers
Wave Africa, the organisers of the Reunion Rave Artistes Night issued a statement to explain why Shatta Wale did not perform at the Reunion Rave Artiste Night slated for Saturday, June 8, 2024.
The programme organised in collaboration with TF Hostels, generated conversations on socials media after news broke that Shatta Wale was prevented from performing even though he had been billed for show.
According to a press release issued by the agency, they were contacted two months ago by the executives of Jean Topp Nelson Yankah Hall to provide an artiste and organise the event on their behalf.
“The 2 months-long deliberations were concluded and a formal contract was signed on Wednesday, 5th June, 2024,” they write.
The statement further indicates that following the contract signing, the Wave Africa team proactively secured and signed a deal with Shatta Wale to perform on the night, and his promotional poster was subsequently released.
However, on Friday, 7th June, 2024, they saw an online communique from the Dean of Students’ Office announcing the cancellation of the event.
“We contacted the hall executives, who were responsible for securing the venue as per the contract. They assured us that the issues with the Dean of Students office had been resolved.
Based on the assurances from the hall executives, our team proceeded with the event plans. Additional security measures were arranged with law enforcement agencies to ensure an incident free event,” their press statement further indicates.
They explained that on Saturday, 8th June 2024, during their setup and sound check, the “Legon campus security interrupted, saying it’s an ‘order from above’.”
They said a delegation from their team met with the Dean of Students and was informed that the event could proceed but without Shatta Wale’s performance, so they adhered.
Iconic Nigerian singer Peter Okoye has responded to allegations made by his twin brother Paul over ownership of a new song “Winning.”
Peter Okoye shared a detailed account of the song’s creation, clarifying his role and collaboration with others, including Ghanaian producer Vampire and songwriter Calypso.
He questioned Paul’s claims, citing their agreed-upon creative process and Paul’s removal of his (Peter’s) vocals from joint songs.
Peter also addressed his temporary break from music, stating he took time to recharge before returning with “Winning.”
He wrote on X: “If you have followed my journey as a solo artiste and even before, you will notice that I give people their due credit where necessary as I am a firm believer in teamwork; I know my strengths, where I need assistance or guidance I am not afraid to ask or work with those who are strong in the areas I am not; this includes the process of creating music, executing concepts and ideas etc. I will always credit people for their contributions to my projects.
“Sometime in June 2022, I stumbled upon a producer based in Ghana named Vampire, and my team and I also personally reached out to him via DM, that I liked his work and was interested in working with him. Before getting him to Lagos, I presented the idea of this producer to my twin brother and our team, getting their buy-in before I got him flight tickets and flew him to Lagos.“
It was when he got into Lagos I asked if he would be open to working on P-SQUARE’s next album project, that the 5 songs I had penned down from my end to be presented to our A&R team for the album project were: JAIYE, WINNING, FIND SOMEBODY, LEGENDARY, and ATTENTION, based on tracks he had produced.
“We started with my own 5 songs that needed to be submitted for PSQUARE’s album, which he produced for me: The idea for WINNING came from one of his beats that I discovered. I came up with the idea of changing the chord progression from the original version to what it is today with my own producer Goldswarm who is the co-producer of the song WINNING.
“I had also engaged a songwriter known as CALYPSO who wrote and composed the song WINNING and sent it to me on the beats through a voice note. And we started working on the song. Mind you, he worked on some other songs that were to make the album as well, so my brother was aware of his input to the production as we were all in the studio during this period.
“Then when my twin brother heard the song WINNING, which we had already created the hook/chorus for, he then wanted to start creating a verse. Our agreed-on process for each song presented by us was: arrange the song, leave a verse for the other person, then we both harmonise the chorus and refrain bits together. He wasn’t supposed to until Calypso and I finished it as part of my own song submission to the LEGENDARY ALBUM.
“After that, we finished and shared verses among ourselves. I do not wish to get into details of why the album didn’t see the light of day till date but it takes a different level of psychosis for one to steal what is theirs already; as since the release of this song, I have been labeled and called all sorts online and they have even gone as far as asking for the song to be taken down on various platforms, to what end?
“It was never part of his 5, now 6 (according to him) songs for submission, yet when he felt I was not interested in making music because I chose my sanity over the constant berating and drama that seemed to come up over creative direction in the group.
“If it were his song, why do I have all the music data including initial conversations and picture/video evidence on the above-mentioned titles/songs? Which of his songs do I have its data in my possession in that case? All because he was hoping for me to quit music. Even when I learnt that he had removed my vocals on songs we did together, suggesting that he sing the entire songs including the ones that he planned to present for the album without my input (a very absurd idea as we both make up the duo not just the one), but we both perform them on stage, I begun to have a rethink of the entire situation. Let me leave this here.
“Maybe because I was not posting anything music-related on my social media page for over 4 months. He believes I have lost interest in music. I took a breather to get my mind and head in the right space and when that was done, my epiphany was WINNING!”.
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Peter Okoye reacts to alleged song ownership by twin brother
