Ghanaian acts Sarkodie, Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy dubbed ‘Triple S’ made Ghanaians proud with a strong showing at the fifth edition of the Tigo Ghana Meets Naija concert last Saturday at the Accra International Conference Centre(AICC).
Although they faced strong competition from Nigeria’s Mavins Crew, dubbed the 7-man army, Ghana’s contingent with a strong home advantage made sure they gave the Nigerians a run for their money.
The well attended concert kicked off after 9.30 pm with warm up performances on the night from some popular Ghanaian artistes which included Nero X, Gallaxy, hiplife duo Keche, Ruff and Smooth and MzVee who got the crowd in the mood for more music.
Comedy acts, DKB and Afia Schwarzenegger, had the audience holding their ribs for laughing so hard. For over 20 minutes, the two treated patrons with a variety of jokes which drew much applause and admiration from the crowd.
The Naija vrs Ghana duel started with a ‘DJ battle’ between Ghana’s DJ, Vyrusky and Nigeria’s, Kessy King. Although Kessy King did his best, the night was for the Ghanaian DJ, who got the crowd singing and dancing along his selection of songs and mixes.
Dancehall artiste Shatta Wale, opening act of Ghana’s “Triple S” started with his usual repertoire of hiplife and dancehall songs including Dancehall King, Whine Your Waist, Party All Night, Homeland among others.
At the latter stage of his performance, Shatta Wale stripped to his underwear receiving cheers. And even when he left the stage, the crowd could not help but scream his name over and over again.
He was followed by Sarkodie who raised the temperature at the Conference Centre even higher. He spent over an hour performing and went through almost 27 songs, including Original, Dancehall Commando, Megye Wo Girl, Shots On Shots, Dumsor, Adonai, Illuminati, Pon The Thing among others.
Sarkodie’s stagecraft and ability to get the audience involved in his performances proved why he is one of the best rappers and performers in the country currently.
Dancehall artiste, Jupitar also made a surprise appearance as he joined Sarkodie to perform their collaboration, Enemies.
Stonebwoy was also on hand to defend Ghana’s pride with a strong performance of mainly reggae-dancehall songs.
The Nigerian performances begun in the early hours of Sunday morning with a warm up performance from sexy singer Seyi Shay.
Each member of the Mavins Crew comprising Dr Sid, Di’Ja, Koerde Bello, D’ Prince, Dr Sid, Don Jazzy had the chance to perform a number of songs from the individual collections but their influence was limited because most patrons were unfamiliar with their songs.
However, the situation was much different when leader of the Mavins Crew took the stage. He made a strong case for the Nigerian contingent and got the crowd sufficiently excited for their hit songs, Adoabi, Dorobucci and Looku Looku.
The concert which came to an end around 3.30 am on Sunday was a blast. There was hardly any technical glitch. It was however obvious that tickets were over sold. The venue was too packed so most patrons had to struggle for space. There was hardly elbow room.
The the ground floor of the AICC was so full to the point that the extra plastic chairs which were provided were filled up and some patrons had to even stand in the aisles for the entire duration of the seven-hour concert.
As a result of this, the view of those seated were blocked so eventually most patrons had no option but to stand on their seats in order to see what was happening on stage.
The situation was similar on the upper deck of the Conference Centre as well.
Credit: Elorm Kojo Ntumy
