By DARRYL IGBOKWEThe release of Tonto Dikeh’s debut singles, “Itz Ova” and “Hi” on October 17, was welcomed by a storm of criticisms as music fans mercilessly lampooned the diminutive actress’ musical effort.
Aside the rage on Twitter and Facebook, Dikeh, the star actress of the controversial Dirty Secret, a 2010 movie with soft-porn elements, was made the butt of jokes even at the recently held Headies Award, where a mock award was given out in her honour by the event’s hosts - MI and Omawumi.
However, Dikeh is not the first to transit from movies to music; rather her poor attempt is the latest addition to the long list of Nollywood icons, who having conquered the thespian world, mistakenly strayed out of their primary constituency of make-believe to the melody-making world of music.
A rundown of other actors-turned music-wannabes include many A-list movie stars. Following the gale of criticisms generated by Dikeh’s songs, Entertainment Express delves into the bag of history and comes up with a review of 10 star Nollywood actors whose attempts at making music ended as super flops.
Turn over leaf for the authentic list, which was carefully chosen by EE’s editorial board and anchored by Steve Dede, without malice.
Tonto Dikeh
Deservingly, there is no doubt on who leads the pack in the super flops star-studded list of successful Nollywood stars that ventured into music and failed woefully.
The budding music career of sultry Rivers State-born actress, Tonto Dikeh in medical parlance will be described as DOA (dead on arrival) going by the uproar generated by the release of her two singles. Ironically, the songs, entitled “Itz ova” and “Hi” made their debuts online and may be one of the most downloaded songs in recent times.
However, from amusement to outright ridicule, the reaction has continued to pour in. By the end of the first day of release, Tonto Dikeh was already a trending item on all platform of the blogosphere. Thousands of fans engaged in a match of mockery with pictures and artworks that ridicule Tonto Dikeh’s music career. Even celebrities were not left out with snide remarks from the likes of new R&B sensation, Burnaboy and Chocolate City rapper, MI Abaga.
The question on everybody’s lips has been what motivated her to record a song? But why fans and critics are yet to wrap their thoughts around her intentions, the Ikwerre-born actress declared via her Twitter handle that she has achieved her goal.
However, her music foray did not come unannounced, few months ago, news broke that the popular actress and repentant but incurable smoker was in the studio working on her debut singles. Many believed that she obviously wanted to join the bandwagon that says ‘I’ve been singing since I was in my mother’s womb’ or the‘I used to sing in the choir’ opportunists.
Despite harsh criticisms from left, right and centre, she was given a mock diadem at the recently held Headies award by the show’s hosts, MI and Omawumi; the diminutive actress has however revealed that she is undeterred by the numerous flaks thrown at her by fans and critics alike. That is not all, Tonto Dikeh has vowed to shoot a music video which may hit the screens before the end of the year.
Desmond Elliot
Desmond Elliot’s music career was a one-off, something that the actor-cum-producer may have even forgotten about. But time and again, the proud father of twin boys has proved his mettle in acting and directing. However, the same may not be said about his music career. The talented actor made no pretence about venturing into secular songs but opted for songs suitable among adult church goers.
The Lagos State University graduate had a brief stint in the music business after a successful career as an actor, but his gospel songs refused to make any mark as his acting career.
After a gospel song entitled “Jesus Loves You,” the star of Bursting Out apparently gave up on his music career following the reception he received. It is pretty sure we won’t be seeing any more music adventure from the renowned movie guru. He also made it clear recently that he is not a musician and regretted being pushed into music by one of his trusted mentors in Nollywood.
Jim Iyke
He was dubbed Nollywood’s bad boy actor. Nobody does bad-boy stuffs like Jim Iyke who was born James Esomugha and hails from Anambra State. Perhaps, this may explain his preference for rap music. Just before the actor launched his clothing line Untamed Closet last year, he made a brief foray into music with the creation of his music label also called Untamed Records where he released an unsuccessful album entitled Who Am I which featured A-list stars like 2face Idibia and Sound Sultan. He followed this up with a music video of the same song. He later released another video for his other song “Born To Do” This featuring Puffy T.
The controversial thespian is definitely not going back to music as he publicly announced on stage while hosting the 2011 edition of the Africa Movie Academy Awards with Phone Swap lead actress, Nse Ikpe-Etim, that he will be sticking to what he knows how to do best. In his own words, Iyke said: “Actors should stick to what they do, including me”, after Nse teased him about his song “Who am I.”.
Genevieve Nnaji
Arguably one of Nigeria’s finest Nollywood exports to the world, Genevieve Nnaji according to CNN in a recent documentary is the Julia Roberts of Africa. She is a national award recipient and winner of the AMAA Best Actress in a Leading role in 2005.
Following a one-year ban alongside other top stars from Nollywood over their excessive artiste fees and unprofessional conducts, the Imo State-born actress plunged head-long into music. After signing a recording contract with Ghanaian music record label, EKB Records, the 33-year old’s debut album, One Logologo Line was an eight tracker album which was retailed on online music site Amazon for $7.92. To further promote the album, which had a very poor reception and was hugely criticized, Nnaji officially released a video of one of her singles, “No More.”
The video enjoyed air play for a while, but could not stand the test of time, a fact she later blamed on the management and poor markteting strategy and not what some described as her obvious lack of musical talent, depth and creativity. She has since learnt her lessons and like Jim Iyke stuck with acting at least for now.
Omotola Jalade Ekeinde
Her first movie role came in the film Venom of Justice in 1995, and since then, she has grown to become a household name within and outside Nigeria. Starring in numerous Nollywood blockbursters, the curvy Nollywood queen was in every producer’s dream cast. When she was hit with a ban alongside other top Nollywood acts for one year, she decided to give music a shot. Her first album Gba was released in 2005 on Sound Factory label comprising songs such as “Show Me Love” featuring Sound Sultan, “Dance” featuring Ruggedman, “Things You Do to Me” featuring Nana King, “Don’t Flip”, “Honey Boy”, “Life or Death”, “What You Looking At”, “Baby Girl”, “Things You Do to Me” featuring Pasto Goody Goody and the album’s supposedly hit single, “Naija Lowa (Gba)” featuring Six O.
Some years later, Omotola teamed up with Paul Play, Del B and Harry Song to produce her sophomore album Me, Myself and Eyes which was launched on Friday, September 24, 2010 on Red Hot Records. Songs on the album include; “Feel Alright” featuring Harry Song, Barren Land, “Call Me”, “Get Busy” featuring Harry Song, “Harmony”, “Missing You”, “Through The Fire” featuring Uche, “Never Let Me Go” featuring Tito, “Keep Going”, “Through The Fire” featuring Paul Play and “Stop The War” featuring Mode Nine.
Despite being one of the most successful movie stars in Nollywood, the Ondo State-born mother of four did not make impact with her music adventure. However, the sexy star is not backing down on her drive for music, as she recently revealed that she is currently working on an album, which may be released before the end of the year. May be after that, her inclusion on this list may be contested, but for now, she is a worthy member of the super flop roll call.
Cossy Orjiakor
What she lacked in talent, she definintely made up with her boobs.The Nollywood queen of boobs is always making news just for one reason - her boobs. Either she is flaunting her most natural endowments or promoting her provocative ways of dressing which usually attracts attention. Madam ‘Boobilicious’as some would like to call her tried promoting her music career but failed woefully.
Our Lady of Boobs even tried winning fans by dropping a nusic video, You Want Me,but it failed woefully to register its mark. It is obvious her auto-tune induced voice is not good enough to give her a hit in the music industry. She has recorded a couple of songs and also shot videos, but they were not enough to guaranty her the much desired musical success.
Whether the Anambra State-born struggling actress will continue with her sojourn in the music industry after failing woefully is uncertain, but there is 100 per cent assurance that she will continue to be in the news for what she is best known for- exposing her boobs.
Segun Arinze
Nollywood’s original bad boy, Segun Arinze once enjoyed a thriving music career way before he became one of Nigeria’s leading movie personalities. His name Segun Arinze originated and became popular as a musician, as his music label felt that his then name, Segun Aina sounded unmarketable. Thus Segun Arinze stuck and the name became the brand we now know today.
His debut album, Dreams released in 1992 under Premier Music label, spun quite a number of hits and contained some of the best love ballads at that time. “Nwanyi Nganga” was one of them. After the album, Nollywood came calling so he had to concentrate on movies, jingles and voice Over thus abandoning his first love.
His music career sprung up again last year when he released a single entitled “Power to Say No” featuring Tuface Idibia and Sunny Neji while Mike Aremu played soprano sax on the ballad “Love me Tonight”. The full album never attained the height it was expected and since then nothing musically has been heard from the baritone-voiced actor .
Shan George
When few years ago, Shan Goerge released her debut single which announced her arrival into the music industry from the movie world, many thought she would be a fantastic singer just as expectations were very high. But events later showed that she is rather needed more in the acting profession than the singing world.
After the very poor outing of her songs on air and in the market, the controversial actress has again gone back to the studio to do something different. To force her way into music industry again, Shan George employed the services of embattled music producer K-Solo for her new single “Ababa”.
Shan didn’t stop there as she also featured ace musician, Sunny Neji. The single was released last week almost at the same time with that of Tonto Dikeh, but the buzz around Tonto’s singles overshadowed her own release.
Ernest Asuzu
From acting to fashion and finally to music, Ernest Asuzu has done virtually everything in the entertainment industry. Seen as one of Nollywood’s versatile characters, Asuzu’s bad boy image goes beyond the screen. Having perfected his act in the movie world and launching his clothing line JDB ( Jesus Da Boss), the thespian under the name EL Cream released his debut album entitled Earnestly Speaking, last September. He never hit the ground running with the 14 tracker album which had songs like “Na you”, “Thank you Baba”, “My Destiny” and other rhythmic songs featuring acts like Black Faze, MC Loph, Terry G, among others.
Though he has failed in his own personal attempt at music, the actor-cum-rapper later revealed how he assisted a couple of A-list music acts in Nigeria like Tuface and Nigga Raw in becoming who they are today.
Anita Joseph
Anita Joseph’s claim to fame was by dating KC of the defunct KCPresh fame. As a struggling actress she later took her luck further by delving into music and failed woefully. The controversial actress earlier in the year finally released her debut single entitiled “Go Gaga”. The song which has been in the pipeline for a while, managed to receive some airplay with plenty uncomplimentary reviews, before going underground. Ever since, nothing has been heard from her musically.
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