Innocent Idibia, Nigeria's highly celebrated and multiple award-winning hip-hop artist, also popularly known as TuBaba, recently teamed up with Trophy Extra Special Stout, a new product from the stables of International Breweries Plc., to encourage Nigerians to comply with the restriction of movement while the coronavirus pandemic is being curtailed.
At the first-of-its-kind online concert in Nigeria, staged by the Africa Queen crooner, and streamed live on his social media handles as well as that of the new Trophy Extra Stout recently, TuBaba not only thrilled his audience to evergreen songs from his rich repertoire but laced every segment of the concert with well-articulated messages, educating them on the seriousness of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier on in the day, some lucky fans were gifted airtime and data to enable them participate in the show. That generated a lot of excitement as more fans looked forward to not only seeing their favourite legend partner with Trophy Stout, but also winning more exciting gifts during the show.
Before starting the show, TuBaba and his wife, Annie Idibia, who was the event host, made a demonstration on hand-washing with soap and water to impress on the audience, the importance of regularly practicing that simple personal hygiene act at this critical time of the pandemic.
The show was quite interactive as 2Baba's fans kept tweeting and sending messages through Instagram and taking advantage of the opportunity to request that he performs their favorite songs. Some of them not only got their favorite songs performed but were also lucky to be gifted cash gifts as icing on the cake. By the time the concert was over, many viewers had won exciting cash prizes by commenting and interacting on the Trophy Stout social media pages.
The evergreen songs dished out by 2Baba in fulfilling the desires of the fans included 'African Queen', 'Opo', 'Amaka', and 'Implication', which garnered the most votes to round up the concert.
TuBaba consistently advised full compliance with all the preventive measures being advocated by the government and health authorities for the curtailment of the scourge. He also stylishly remixed some of his songs to convey COVID-19 messages in the lyrics!
According to TuBaba, the surest way to bring COVID-19 to its knees is by immobilizing it, and that could only be achieved by obeying the stay at home order as advised by the authorities.
This was corroborated by Tolu Adedeji, Marketing Director of International Breweries Plc who said that staging of the concert was symbolic in many ways. According to her, that it was possible to bring so much fun and hope to thousands of people in the comfort of their homes, while still complying with the directive on social distancing, shows that COVID-19 cannot stop us, if we all do what we are supposed to do, starting with staying at home as directed.
She added that Trophy Extra Special Stout, by facilitating the concert, was bringing to live, International Breweries corporate vision of bringing people together for a better world, which she explained to be a world without the CoVID 19 pandemic.
Trophy Extra Special Stout and TuBaba also reiterated their promise to donate a sum of N10 million to the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) to support the fight against the ravaging pandemic.
The concert which lasted for about an hour saw over 50 thousand viewers join in from across the nation, and beyond, via internet connectivity on such electronic devices as computers, tabs, phones, smart TVs, etc. Viewers can still relive all the fun moments from the concert by visiting the Trophy Stout page on YouTube and @trophystout on Instagram.
Rounding off the show after 2Baba's energetic and entertaining performance, Annie Idibia, appreciated Trophy Extra Special Stout and International Breweries Plc for the partnership that made the staging of the e-concert possible.