At a press conference held at Terra Kulture in Victoria Island Lagos Friday for the launch of the remix and campaign, journalists questioned the panel of D’Banj, Diamond Platinumz, Omotola Jalade, Waje, Banky W, Bono, and others on the nudity, especially of women, in some of their videos as this is contrary to the course they are fighting for – girls’ and women’s rights.
Banky W, however, countered the notion that he promotes nudity saying, “Throughout my career, I have never shot a dirty video or promoted nudity in my videos except for the few ones I featured on. And I don’t believe that we should force every artiste to sing a certain type of song or video let art be art and let them do whatever they like.
“It is hypocritical of us to sit here and say all artistes are shooting a particular kind of video. That is simply not true. Everyone has a role to play in the kind of video that goes on tv. For example, late last year, two of my favourite videos that I have ever done, Mercy and Unborn Child, they are very strong songs and have positive messages in them. And of all the videos I have done in my life those two videos have the least views and airplay.
“But when I sang ‘Lagos Party’, ‘Yes/ No’, ‘Strong Thing’ they were huge in the media. I guarantee you that every artiste has a positive song on their albums but if you are not going to let an artiste business survive, they will have to do what you like. So let’s stop being hypocritical that because we are doing a fantastic movement like this everything should be on hold encourage us too by requesting the positive songs too.”
D’Banj, Diamond Platnumz, Banky W and Femi Kuti and Bono, the lead singer of U2 and co founder of ONE.org joined forces with Omotola Jolade, Waje, Selmor Mtukudzi on the remix of Strong Girls and Women.
The song produced by Cobhamns Asuquo advocates women’s empowerment initiative to conscientize the public on the need for greater investment in girls and women.
The initiative is based on the idea that poverty is sexist meaning, it is harder for a girl born in poverty to fight it out than a boy and poverty won’t be defeated until women and girls are put first.
