African musicians and style of dressing - Mzbel
Posted October 4th, 2007 by Chale
So Mzbel has apparently had enough criticism concerning her style of dressing on stage and music videos, etc so she has decided to change from the Western style to the 'African' way of dressing - stop wearing bikinis, etc.
She has decided to choose the 'dipo' style because her mother is a Krobo (this will probably be more for performances). Do a Google image search for 'dipo krobo' and see what Mzbel is talking about.
Well, maybe she is kidding, maybe she is not.
But what do people think about African musicians and the attires they wear? Especially on stage. I know my man Obrafour has started wearing African type stuff in his performances these days, following the leads of Obour and Kwaadee. Many Ghanaian musicians I know wear African clothing when performing at shows but I can't say the same for other countries since I haven't seen much to that effect.
Also, do you think Mzbel deserves the criticism she's been getting for wearing bikinis in her videos. Check out her latest video, "E dey be".
What is your take on the matter?
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Alot of musicians in general like to put on a unique image when they first hit the big scene in order to be remembered "better". Off the top of my head I can think of Mzekezeke, Dr. Sakis, Bebe Cool, Awilo etc. Mzbel is no different. She probably decided that the skimpy look would stand out more (the Beyonce strategy lol)...which I mean, u cant really blame them, image sells. If people like u, they like yr music, if they like yr music, they have to like u. And whether we would like to admit it or not, physical image and popularity seems to be correlated, especially for women. We cant blame the artistes for trying out different marketing strategies.
Anyhow, I am all for African musicians wearing their African attire , atleast during performances. I always love seeing Ringo Madlingozi in top magazines with his traditional Xhosa gear and stick. Not even that extreme, I love seeing 55 in their Ghana colors or Thandiswa Mazwai in "rainbow nation" gear. Its all about relating, and if people can see you on stage and feel proud to be from where they are from, then that is a lekker accomplishment.
Firstly congrats to Mzbel on her pending wedding in december.
Not too sure about da 'dipo yo' dressing. cos that will be something else..cos they dont cover their boobs..only beads on their upper body.. hmm interesting.. we live to see!
I personally would want to see african artistes balance african and western attire.
I can somehow relate to King Ayisoba's songs but yet to get used to his appearance.. Atongo looks gd in the smock/ batakari..
I like how becca wears the hell out of them african prints sometimes..kwabena kwabena too likes african clothes and most gospel musicians wear a lot of the traditional clothes.
King Ayisoba? He has the funniest outfits ever and I don't even know if he does it intentionally. He wears these gigantic slippers I could swear he sows himself cuz no store would be selling that
I also kinda like Angelique Kidjo when she wears suits, it kinda fits her interestingly. The time I went to see Tuface Idibia in concert, he was wearing some simple pullover shirt like that, so I guess the weather also counts? :-)
mzbel dresses okay on stage, i don't see why people are making a fuss about it. how she dresses on stage should not determine how anyone dresses off stage
yeah, sometimes I feel she is picked on too much. See these international stars (names need not be mentioned) who are basically parambulating nasty buttocks and breasts on our screens every day, doing provocative dances in half the fabric needed for a full bikini. Or maybe, on a cultural relative scale people think Mz exposes too much?
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