By Tina Amanda
Some stakeholders in the entertainment industry have urged the people of Rivers State to embrace and celebrate their local music artists.
They emphasized that supporting local talent is crucial for helping these artists achieve their full potential in the music industry, fostering a supportive community, can make Rivers State become a significant hub for musical talent.
Speaking to newsmen during a press conference in Port Harcourt, Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Grafton Records, Tonye Ibiama Aka Big T, highlighted the advantages Port Harcourt City holds for advancing the fortunes of artists.
Ibiama believes that the city’s unique attributes and opportunities can significantly boost the careers of local talent,
He also emphasized the importance of the upcoming mega event “Light up Port Harcourt’ which he said, will help bridge the gap in the music industry and project Rivers music to the world.
“We are still in the process of trying to celebrate the talent we have in Port Harcourt if you know the history of Grafton Entertainment or records. We have always tried to celebrate, nurture, and pick up the artists from this city.
“I have always believed in talents in the city, I have in the past tried as much as possible to create platforms that will always be there for artists to showcase themselves and this is one of those platforms, that we are trying to create now, where we can celebrate our artist.
“In the past, we have created ‘climax night’ One of the biggest artists that you can talk about today as long as Nigerian and Africa are part of it is “Burna boy”, he passed through that platform in his early days, so those are the things that we want to see because if that platform was not there at the time, it will be lacking for most artist to showcase themselves.
“We created it at that time, and now there is a bigger one, so when we say Port Harcourt artist and we are celebrating Port Harcourt artist it’s not just the national artist that we know, yes the national artist will be part of it, but we still believe in the upcoming one because everything you see today with the ones that have made it started from the bottom.
“We are asking that the city supports something like this, we have been asking for this for years, and we are still asking the same thing. We need to nurture and grow our own talents that are from here and celebrate them.
“This is what this platform is all about. Happy, Grafton Entertainment and workaholic are working together to make it a success, the reason why we are here is to let the world know about it. We are not just letting the world know about it but also want the people to come out and support it.
“it is very important this is ours and we have to make it a success”.
CEO /FONDER Light Up Entertainment Limited, Mr. Happy, said the event has been named 100 percent Port Harcourt.
“We have christened this particular edition 100% Port Harcourt city talent meaning we want to showcase the music potential of the city of Port Harcourt.
“It is one of its kind, I think we have never had something like this before, it has always been the comedian sector and other parts of the entertainment industry, we looked into the city and we identified the gap in the music industry and the gap is the platform for the music artists.
“so it’s a vision that was birthed on 27 December 2023, and today we are happy the vision has become a reality in the sense that the Light Up Port Harcourt branch has been able to give the platform for the Port Harcourt music artist to showcase their talents to the world. This is why light up Port Harcourt was founded”.
we have done a couple of events the last one was on March 9th, 2024 which also showcased both the Port Harcourt artists and other national artists in the music Industry. But this particular one we want to unveil today we want to announce to the press is a special edition that is solely for Port Harcourt artists, port Harcourt music artists and it will be held on 15th September 2024, So that is why we are here today, we want to tell the city, we want to tell the world, we want to tell the nation that we have so much talent in the music industry that they need to hear from
Port Harcourt’s renowned comedian, K.O. Baba, called on the government, individuals, stakeholders, and organizations to support a one-time big event happening live in Port Harcourt.
“My, involvement is basically because it’s Port Harcourt trying to see how I can support the host and also support the management team and see how we can get the very best of it. But fundamentally am concerned about how we treat our Port Harcourt team and the media has done something for us today.
“We want people to know that for the first time, we are hosting a concert not on the street, not in one restaurant, not on the street, not in one bar, but in the biggest event so centered in the southern part of the country, the event will be happening at EUI event center, and for us to put this event at EUI event center where it’s a 5,000 capacity hall”.
