Richard Iweanoge is the General Manager, Brand and Communications, MTN Nigeria. In this interview with DANIEL ANAZIA, he speaks about MTN’s commitment to supporting artistes in the Nigerian entertainment industry in achieving global prominence through the recently launched Y’ello Star project.
Now, as regards MTN Y’ello Star, we are putting all our energy and all our resources into the property just to further build the capacity of Nigerians. Y’ello Star is one of those investments fully owned by MTN and we hope to create more properties of this kind for the sole purpose of talent discovery in Nigeria.In February this year, MTN announced the launch of its Y’ello Star music-reality TV show.
We have so many music reality TV shows in the country and some may come up later in the year or next year. What makes Y’ello Star different from the plethora of music reality TV shows in the country? Music as an art goes beyond just having talent. It entails the ability to manage success, write music, amongst other things. These are the technical exposures we are providing for the contestants. To accomplish this, we have collaborated with Afrinolly. Through them, we have both Berklee School of Music and Henley Business School as partners for the show.
Malik Yusef, who is a six-time Grammy-award winner, is going to write and sing a song with the winner of MTN Y’ello Star music-reality TV show. Again, I have to put that in context. You are sitting in Ikorodu, hoping MTN would call you, and the next thing you are producing a song with a six-time Grammy-award winner.