#GUEST ARTICLE: Ne-yo wins the hearts of Zambians with his humility…a lesson to local artistes
NE-YO, original name Shaffer Chimere Smith, known professionally as Ne-Yo, is an American R&B singer, songwriter, actor, dancer, and record producer.
He gained recognition for his songwriting abilities when he wrote Mario’s 2004 hit “Let Me Love You”.
The origin of the name Ne-Yo was given by a mutual friend in 1999 who called him Neo because he could ‘see’ music akin to the character Neo from The Matrix trilogy.
He altered the ‘-yo’ part as an homage to his hip hop roots.
The Miss independence hit maker was born on October 18,1979.
Besides writing for other artistes, three of Ne-yo’s albums — 2006’s “In My Own Words,” 2007’s “Because of You,” 2008’s “Year of the Gentleman” – have gone RIAA Platinum and produced several popular hits, including “Miss Independent,” “Sexy Love,” “Because of You,” “Mad” and “Closer.” NE-YO has also appeared in several films including Stomp The Yard.
Neyo arrived in the country on Thursday 12 October, 2023 for the annual Stambic Music Festival slated for Friday 13 and Saturday 14, 2023 at the Polo Grounds in Lusaka
Apart from his good live music performance, Ne-yo will leave something for Zambians to talk about- his humility despite being a star.
The behavior of Ne-yo should not only be exemplary to Zambian musicians alone but the whole Africa.
We had Davido from Nigeria, who came to perfom for the same festival after another American music star Brandy(My darling my crush for years)failed to show up for some reasons.
Despite many describing Davido’,s performance as below par, his behavior towards his Zambian fans and fellow musicians leaves much to be desired.
Information indicated that the Nigerian singer even refused to have audience with some Zambian musicians.
I will not even waste time to talk about Kizz Daniel who also exhibited some arrogant behaviour when he came to Zambia, even refusing flowers from the self proclaimed Zambian sweetheart – to Kiss Daniel she was bitter heart.
Let me end here…
Kalemba