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Over the years, Nigerian creatives have gotten in tight spots due to their portrayal of varied religions in their creative work. In January 2023, when Jade Osiberu released her highly acclaimed film, ‘Gangs of Lagos,’ custodians of Eyo were threatening to sue and gave ultimatums due to the fact that the masquerade was used to carry out an assassination in the film.
Although the film clearly stated that it was a work of fiction and has no affiliation to real-life events, custodians of the culture felt that it was disrespectful, and as such, there was backlash. This has happened over time, and music stars have also been caught in situations like this, with Logos Olori, Davido’s recent signee being one of the many cases.
Here are four times music stars have been bashed for their portrayal of religion.
Logos Olori’s Music Video Leads To Backlash
On Friday, July 21, 2023, Davido posted the teaser to the music video of his record label signee, Logos Olori. The single Jaye Lo, which had men wearing jalabia’s and caps dancing on a praying mat after praying at the front of a mosque, enraged Muslim followers as they felt it disrespected their religion.
The 45-second video has since led to backlash for both Davido and Logos Olori as many fans of Muslim background have gone on to unstan the music star because he refused to take down the video or apologise for it. Two days later, the music star has gone on to delete the video but is yet to issue a statement regarding the issue.
Falz’s Battle With MURIC
When Falz released ‘This is Nigeria,’ the whole country paid attention to the graphical representation and timeliness of the single, which was a cover of Childish Gambino’s 2018 viral single ‘This Is America.’ As relevant as the song was, it also generated lots of backlash.
Particularly, The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) demanded that Falz withdraw the video and release an apology or face possible legal action because the video was Islamophobic as girls in Ijab used to represent the Chibok Girls were dancing the viral dance ‘Shaku Shaku.’
They said, ‘The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) strongly denounces the Shaku Shaku dance video. It is thoughtless, insensitive, and highly provocative. It is a hate video. It is Islamophobia nulli secundus. This video has the potential of causing a religious crisis of unprecedented dimension.’
Eventually, the group did not proceed with their threats.
K1’s De Ultimate
Another notable music star that was bashed by worshippers for disrespecting their religion is fuji musician, K1 De Ultimate, who released a single titled Yasin that had Muslim clerics and a video of the musician dancing seductively with a female in the same frame while chanting ‘Yasin.’
One of the interpretations is reportedly referring to the prophet Muhammad and Muslims did not take the disrespect likely, but there is no public record of whether the Fuji icon apologised to the clerics who were offended by his portrayal.
Traditionalists Bash Tope Alabi
During a live performance in church, she used the word ‘Aboru Aboye’ as an adlib while she was performing, and Yoruba traditionalists called her out for using their lingua during a ministration in church.
In response to the backlash, the renowned gospel singer mentioned that there was no special language reserved for traditionalists and it was simply a Yoruba word.
“It was recorded that David made a sacrifice of faithfulness to God. Why was the word sacrifice not written as the same English word in the Yoruba version of the Bible? It is a Yoruba language,” she said.
Although these works are all creative and are reportedly in no way intended to disrespect a religion, they have still managed to step on the toes of worshippers. There are boundaries that certain religious organisations do not want to be crossed, and that line should always be taken note of.
The post Four Times Nigerian Artistes Have Been Bashed For Portrayal Of Religion In A Music Video and How It Ended appeared first on Nigerian Entertainment Today.
