Three-time Grammy Award nominee Rocky Dawuni has come to the defense of his colleagues saying he doesn’t see filling the O2 Arena in the UK as a yardstick to measure the success of an artiste.
His comments come after the filling of the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena by Nigerian singer Asake triggered conversations as to why Ghanaian musicians couldn’t do same.
Rocky Dawuni told Graphic Showbiz that no one should think Ghanaian artists aren’t doing well because they don’t fill the O2 Arena.
“We are doing so well as musicians in other areas and I don’t think it is right to use O2 Arena which is in just one country to judge how good our musicians are.
“It is not even proper to compare our musicians to our Nigerians brothers because we are unique in our own way. Nigerians have the support and the investment and if we get same, filling that place will not be a big deal”, he said.
According to Rocky Dawuni, Ghanaian musicians have mounted some of the biggest stages across the world and doing so well out there.
“I can tell you for a fact that our music is the best. It is rich. We should build on our strength. We should focus on building our music industry and make sure our artistes who play on such big platforms project the positive image of our country. I don’t think filling the O2 is something we should worry our head about”, he added
He goes on to explain that a Ghanaian musician can fill the O2 “because we have the quality of musicians who can do that so I don’t want us to spend time on this. We have so much to talk about with our music than filling a place which is a venue in one country,” he said.
Rocky Dawuni is a three-time Grammy Award nominee who has worked in the music industry for almost two decades. His album ‘Branches of the Same Tree’ was nominated for Best Reggae Album at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards in December 2015, making him the first nomination from Ghana.
