CELEB BUZZ: Why Victoria Kimani is not getting impressive views

Nigerian-based Kenyan artiste Victoria Kimani. PHOTO | COURTESY

What you need to know:

  • Victoria Kimani should be on the same level as Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade but her biggest mistake all along has been her failure to appease the Kenyan audience.
  • There have been several complaints that she is not ‘Kenyan enough’.
  • No matter how much awesomeness she puts out, no one seems to be impressed.
  • Do you have feedback on this article? E-mail: [email protected]

About two days ago, I was walking with a friend after visiting my mum in the hospital. I consider him a true friend. Why? Because when someone offers to accompany you to see your sick mum without you asking, that person has a heart of gold. There’s no question about that.

As we were talking about a variety of topics, including Natalie Tewa, he said something that really touched me. He said, “I’ll be honest with you Philip. I feel like you should be bigger than you actually are. I feel like you need to have made more steps than you actually have.”

“How?” I asked curiously as wrinkles of worry and concern formed on my forehead.

“I started reading your articles in 2013. That’s how we became friends, remember? I sent you a message on FB and told you how talented you were. By now you should be very successful, not complaining that the hospital pharmacy is overpricing your mum’s medicine.”

His words came from a good place and inasmuch as they hit me hard, I agreed because sometimes I feel the same way.

Such words always hurt, especially if you have no clue how to be bigger and better. They hurt more if you’ve really tried to be bigger and better but every major shot you took failed to materialise into something meaningful.

But they say if you dish it, you should be able to take it too. As a critic-at-large who enjoys serving the cold, hard, refrigerated truth to celebs, I took his words to heart and vowed to do something. I will do something to be bigger and better. I don’t know what it is yet but I am thinking hard.

One way or the other, the guy writing this article has to get where he is destined to be. It might take a while but it will happen. Sum’bady say Amen!! I said Sum’bady say Amen!!

Maybe I need to start a church. That’s it. If this writing thing doesn’t work out, be sure to see me on YouTube turning water into tea. Wait! That’s not a miracle, is it? Anyone can do that. I’ll come up with something better. I promise.

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Anyway, speaking of the way my friend felt about me…each one of us has felt the same way about someone. We always feel that they should do more than they actually are doing. We always see their mistakes better than them.

When you feel this way about someone you love, it’s your duty to tell them. When you don’t tell them, you are being mean. You are not being your brother’s (or sister’s) keeper. Whether they listen or not is up to them.

I like Victoria Kimani and I also feel that she should be bigger and better than she should be. For a long time, I always felt that she was underrated and people didn’t take her seriously but then I realised that this is not the case. She is simply her own worst enemy.

Victoria Kimani should be on the same level as Tiwa Savage and Yemi Alade but her biggest mistake all along has been her failure to appease the Kenyan audience. There have been several complaints that she is not ‘Kenyan enough’ and sadly, this is true. No matter how much awesomeness she puts out, no one seems to be impressed.

Her recent song with Sarkodie is a good example. It’s called “Wash It.” For any African artiste, a collabo with Sarkodie would be a huge achievement. Alongside Nasty C, AKA and Cassper Nyovest, he is one of the best rappers in Africa (Khaligraph, don’t tweet me please).

Sarkodie always raps in his native language and you don’t understand what he is saying but you find yourself saying “Dude! That’s some real stuff right there. I feel you.”

Sarkodie’s biggest song has 63 million views yet Kimani’s song with him only has 180k views in three weeks. Clearly, something is wrong and that something is a total lack of interest from both Kenyans and the Nigerians that Victoria Kimani tries too hard to appeal to. 

If any other Kenyan artistes worked with Sarkodie, the song would trend but well…it’s Vicky so even Nadia Mukami gets better views than her. At this point, I won’t be surprised if Victoria collaborated with Wizkid or Davido and no one cared. It’s sad really.

FAN BASE

Kenyans are very accommodative. We accepted artistes like Kidum and Gilad as our own yet they weren’t really born and raised here. We gave them all the support. However, Kenyans are quite snobby too. Once you show them that you don’t want to be part of them, they do the same to you.

Victoria Kimani’s biggest blunder is her refusal to market herself locally. She rarely does interviews when she is around. She rarely hangs around or works with local artistes. She rarely performs in Kenya too. She even once admitted that she has never bothered to learn Kiswahili. Why? No one knows.

I strongly believe that if Victoria marketed herself as a home girl, she would be huge. Right now, many people feel that they just can’t relate with her. They can neither relate to her personality nor her music.

It would still be okay if Kenyans didn’t care about her and Nigerians did. Sadly, they don’t. They just talk about her sometimes but never give her the full attention. Nigerians see her as a culture vulture who is trying to profit from their style. Just a few days ago, in an effort to gain some more clout in West Africa, she dissed Tiwa Savage and she ended up getting called all sorts of names by Nigerians.

It’s thus time that she reworks her operational formula. She needs to connect with Kenyans more. Maybe…then maybe will she get where she truly deserves to be.

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Do you have feedback on this article? E-mail: [email protected]