Credit: The Visual Authors

By: Favour Bamijoko 

To be frank, there is perhaps no other place, or institution, in any society where you can find a readily available cultural powerhouse than in our Universities. With 1.8 million undergraduate students and 242 thousand postgraduate students, according to a 2018 evaluation by Statista, Universities hold a large demography of youths, and indisputably, the youths make the bulk of those who consume the commodity of Nigeria’s music industry. Therefore, Nigerian students are part of those who drive the commercial success of Nigeria’s pop stars.

Going by the endearing knowledge that Nigerian students form a part of the biggest consumers of Naija pop, it is surprising that campus-touring is majorly seen as a marker of up-and-coming artists. In actual fact, the campus environment should be familiar grounds for well-established artists, as much as emerging talents.

Speaking affectionately, artists’ tours build a sense of oneness between the artist and the fans. Getting to encounter icons of the form, not in their digital form, but in the evidence of human form creates a feeling of accessibility, and connection between both fans and artists. This atmosphere will usually stimulate cultural ingenuity. Students, vibrant as always, will seek to explore unusual means of expression.

Upon the announcement of Ayra Star’s coming to UI on Dec. 3rd, social media was rife with rippling excitement. Eager to witness Ayra Star live, fans speculated about the concert, and planned to show up at the concert, dressed like Ayra Star. More so, during the concert, a student presented the icon with a portrait of Ayra he drew. Essentially, fans, thrilled, were concerned with placing themselves in close relation with her. This feeling of relation or oneness is what such a tour builds; and ultimately, it strengthens the bond between stars and fans.

In an inestimable way, it provides viable platforms for promotional purposes. With large public reach, our pop stars command cult-like attention from the media, paparazzi, all the way to sleazy tabloid gossip. Readily made platforms like that creates avenues for emerging talents to promote their crafts. At Ayra’s campus tour for instance, student-artists like Ann, Shegundo got to exhibit their craft (singing) to a growing crowd; the same advantage could be said for acts like Lifesize Teddy, Bayanni, Boy Spyce, Ladipoe (although, they have a degree of publicity to their names).

Additionally, campus grounds are fertile places for talent harvest. Quite a healthy number of students are remarkable creatives across diverse fields. Singing, photography, fashion designing, artists, production managers — so long as you can name it, there are students to find engaging with it. And, with the top-roof excitement that comes with pop celebrities’ coming, students-creatives tend to plumb the depths of their talents in order to create good arts from the thrill. With the publicity accompanying events of this calibre, platforms credible enough are provided for marketing and recognition.

Campus tours used to be a popular culture with stars. J Cole once had a Campus Consciousness Tour in 2012. Still in 2012, Drake had the club paradise tour, where he toured 15 campuses. In 2013, the Club Life Campus Invasion Tour took Tiësto to 14 campuses; all the way to the 90’s and early 2000s, pop stars across the globe made campus tours a pilgrimage. With Afro beats and other genres of songs from Nigeria’s music industry marinating the world, it will be inspiring to witness our stars visit campus environments across Nigeria, and as well lend their voices to the problems students grapple.