Wednesday 15 June 2011

My Heart Will Go On

“Love can touch us one time… and last for a lliifffeettimmme. Doo you know my heart will goo onnn. Near….. FAAARRRRR, whereEEVVVERR you are, I’ll be h—“

Oh sorry… didn’t see you load the page. [Clears throat]

Ghanaians love Celine Dion. Like a lot. Whenever people ask me what my favourite song is, or my favourite artist, it’s followed with, “Don’t you like Celine Dion?”

When I say no… then comes the “Why not?”… I’m Canadian, and she’s a Canadian artist. So I should like her by affiliation, right? Well, I don’t have a single song of hers on my iPod. The most I can say about my listening to her is this one time I put “The Prayer” (duet with Andrea Boccelli) on repeat on a boom-box so I could tap into my Italian roots. And of course, belting My Heart Will Go On after watching the Titanic. She’s not really my style. I think her popularity in Ghana makes it difficult to explain why Canadians (in general) don’t really listen to her anymore.

I had a very interesting talk with a friend of mine yesterday about this. He told me he used to listen to her, but he stopped when he saw an interview she did.

Apparently, she couldn’t believe that 70% of her 5 million bucks in CD sales were from Africans. She said that they were not her target audience and should stop buying her stuff. What person in their right mind tells people not to buy their product? Seriously?!?! I don’t care who your target audience is…if they’re not biting, maybe you should aim at a new target.

Now, I’m hearing this info second hand, so it may be a little embellished, but I also heard a rumour that she refused to tour or do a concert in Africa.

I know what you’re thinking: “Okay, what’s your point?”

I just think it’s weird. I’m not pulling out the racist and prejudice card just yet, but I think this is an example of Western arrogance and a little ignorance with a cherry of naivety on top. The “us” and “them” syndrome.

WHY WOULD SHE SAY THAT?!!! C’mon, does it really bug you THAT much that non-North American people dig your tunes? If anything, you should be impressed with yourself. Your work resonated with a different audience than you intended.

And for the record, I’m not hating on Celine Dion. She’s probably the most famous Canadian artist worldwide. Everyone has heard her name. So she must have done something right. I’m not even sure if this information is true.

I feel like this post is tip-toeing of the lines of political correctness, so I’m going to stop here.

Later days,
Daniela

Remember, these are my own personal opinions and words. They do not represent the views of any person, organization, or robot. And no one is endorsing anything either. Gosh. 

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