In recent outings, Nabil Fongod, who is one of the pioneers of what we call urban culture/entertainment in Cameroon has been firing shots against what he calls the mediocrity mindset which has consumed many people in our entertainment industry and the country as a whole.
Today, many argue that to achieve success in the Cameroonian music scene, you must sing in French in order to gain the attention of the predominantly French speaking population of Cameroon and French Africa that is welcoming to content from Cameroon.
According to Nabil, satisfying the French audience does not put you on a path to becoming a world class act. Basically, after conquering the French market you will have to come back to square one to start building a brand that can sell in the global music market. In other words, there is no compound interest in capturing the French market. To make it simpler; planting 2000 hectares of ankop does not make you a good pilot.
There is definitely much reason in Nabil’s argument. It is a fact that French music has never had any global appeal. Even the biggest French artists don’t get booked to perform in America, talk less of filling up stadiums outside of France or French Africa.
Nabil believes that Afrobeats is the base on which all contemporary African artists looking for global recognition must build their sound and singing in English is an advantage and not a disadvantage; even in Cameroon.
Burna Boy is easily one of the biggest artists in the world right now. When you listen to his sound you will see that he is basically incorporating hip hop and RnB into the afrobeats core that he solidified and introduced in his ‘African Giant’ album.
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