Sarkodie’s Manager-Sammy Forson has responded to my recent article ‘The Ridiculous Demands Of Ghanaian Entertainers | Using Kojo Antwi, Sarkodie & Efya As A Case Study—–and he pretty much doesn’t know what he is talking about.
As much as his manager tried to sanitize Sarkodie’s image, he intentionally missed the direction of my piece…
Those who have discussed this issue including Sarkodie’s manager have made references to the huge entourage international artistes like Chris Brown travel with.
What they do not probably know is that, unlike our Ghanaian artistes, Chris Brown and others have what we call REAL MANAGEMENT TEAM.
Chris Brown does not have to wait on promoters or organizers to get him and his team of professionals’ visas to most of the countries he frequently performs in…
If indeed these Ghanaian artistes want to compare their demands to Chris Brown, they must tow the same line with their so called management team.
It is obvious that Sarkodie, Efya and some of these local artistes repetitively perform in America and UK so why don’t their so called management team secure at least 5 years working visas for them and the people they need to travel with?.
This way, anytime a gig comes up, they just have to take their passports and fly off….This will increase the marketability of these artistes. Event organizers outside Ghana will come in for them more when they know they don’t have to hustle for visas, compared to other Ghanaian artistes they may need to obtain visas for…
I went to university to get a degree and wait or look for a job…I did not sit down for the job to come and then asked them to get me a school to obtain a degree. At this stage, we are looking at making yourself more marketable and that is the job of the management, not to ‘sponge’ on these artistes—-using them to claim visas for people they loosely call ‘team’.
READ ALSO: MUST READ: And You Wonder Why Ghanaian Music & Movies Ain’t Going NO Where?
Ask yourself this; how many of these so called management team members can meet the necessary requirements to secure/obtain visas on their own? Most of them cannot, and yet they expect to be handed visas simply because they are part of Sarkodie’s team. Visas are given based on individuals merits or standings….
Those comparing Ghanaian artistes to Chris Brown and others ought to know this; because Chris Brown works in certain countries a lot, he and his team have obtained long visas for these countries so they are able to fly in there easily to work when a gig comes up.
Do you think Chris Brown goes about chasing a UK working visa everything he has to work in UK? No, he has enough years secured for him…This is what management does and this is what we call a serious artistes.
I am told one of the people Efya and several of those Sarkodie wanted visas for had never travelled before (no travel experience), and this means they can easily be refused visas to countries like UK and USA.
As I stated above, most of these so called team members do not have any ‘standing visa credibility’, believing that because they are with Sarkodie or Efya, they should be granted visas…
Does this mean that any time these people who hardly meet visa requirements are refused visas, the artistes should not travel for business?
It seems these artistes management teams/managers are more of visa contractors than anything else—using the little fame and status of these artistes to secure visas for some undeserving individuals.
If any of these management teams are serious like they claim, they should rather secure long visas for their artistes and team members as international artistes do.
This way, they make themselves more marketable (available to work even at short notices) and also, they do not have to sit home praying that an Embassy grants them a visa anything a job comes through.
What at all does these managers/management team do for these Ghanaian artistes apart from cashing in on them? We all know the score!
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