During a discourse with a lady friend and a colleague writer a couple of months ago, she was quick to reveal her displeasure at the anchors paraded on television who she claimed are ‘half-baked’. Aside their unimaginative style of presentation her concern included their woeful choice of words and low appreciation of the subject they tackle. Their choice of words is often questionable recounting an instance when a popular female presenter classified Irene Logan as a diva.
She could not believe how a relatively amateur singer could be mistaken for a diva. Irene in her opinion is not an operatic prima donna or a very successful singer of non-operatic music in the ranks of Beyonce, Mary J. Blige, Sarah Brightman and Belinda Carlisle. Per the definition, Bibbie Brew is the only Ghanaian who isn’t far from Diva status and not the category of any Ghanaian female singer around.
It is becoming appalling how certain persons supposed to be better informed and also well read continually disregard the contextual usage of several key words lately. One is tempted to believe it is a calculated attempt of naughtiness on their part rather than a shameful exhibition of their ignorance to the world. But what if it is indeed the case of the latter?
Guess it would be surprising and remain a mystery to unravel especially when this appears to be a routine. Hence, it will be fair if such persons are not taken serious for their words. To recognize them as authority on issues bothering on the queen’s language will be totally out of place and a perilous gamble. Certainly, this phenomenon stands as a great indictment to the ‘make-up faces’ on our television screens.
I watched a repeat version of a program on television supposed to bring celebrated people closer to their admirers. It was tagged the Late Night Celebrity Show which sounded rather ludicrous to me. On the guest seat was Pope Skinny, a relatively unknown act (sorry to emphasize but none of the party rave heads then with me knew him). The opening montage had images of other persons who were fairly unknown.
I wondered how such regular dudes on the streets of Accra could be referred to as celebrities. It was extremely difficult to fish out the yardstick for selecting such personalities onto the show. Celebrity in our corner of the world is loosely defined to reflect virtually any nine day wonder artiste who falls short of commanding a great deal of public and media attention.
Lately, people who play cameo roles in low budget productions and others lucky enough to have a few appearances on television are part of the supposed celebrity fraternity in Ghana. There is also the one hit wonder musicians who are hailed as celebrities just because their songs are receiving rotations on a few radio stations. Anyway, let us not forget this is usually as a result of payola paid by their management to disc jockeys. Are they not jokers?
Should you think I am callous and being unfair to the self styled celebrities, you ought to ponder over these questions; where do they hang out, eat, shop and stay? Is there any community that remains the sole preserve of these supposed celebrated persons? Never think they are always around the Accra Mall and buying from mid shift shops because they want to be closer to their fans. There isn’t any other option aside what and where everyone patronizes.
Or are they even involve in any charitable work that could at least, bring them closer to their assumed celebrity status? What is their cult status when it comes to contributions to the society, if they truly want us to believe they are worth the praises often heaped on them? Isn’t it a shame to drive in a luxurious car only to donate three bags of rice and a hundred dollar bill to an orphanage and make a whole lot of noise about it?
There are quite a number of famous personalities in Ghana and that remains a fact but do they command public and media attention? So it becomes ironical when every famous person is classified as a celebrity. Per the definition for a celebrity, how many of them can be paraded in Ghana aside Michael Essien and other Black Stars teammate who have the world’s attention on them?
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