LEMAR AND DIANA ROSS IN NIGERIA.

Lemar Obika


Diana Ross

How could I have forgotten to tell y'all? Lemar and living legend Diana Ross were in Nigeria just this last weekend. They both performed at the 12th Annual Thisday Awards, which held on the 24th of February, 2007, at the Muson Center, Onikan, Lagos.

I saw it live...hmm...I mean...I saw it live on television. I'd had absolutely no idea that such a thing was about to happen in Nigeria. Had I known, I would have gone to the end of this world to find a pass to that show. Common people, Lemar in Nigeria and I didn't see it live? That's so unfair. And Diana Ross? That's even more painful.

Lemar's performance
Lemar said that was his first time of coming to Nigeria in fifteen years. That's a sad thing to happen. I'm not routing for Lemar anymore. He should come home more often. He churned out most of his popular music and the crowd consisting mostly of the 'elites', couldn't have enough of him.

His performance was beautiful. He sang all his popular songs and there was absolutely no alteration in his voice. You would think he was miming, but my boy wasn't. He performed live. Incredible voice.

Diana Ross's performance
Her band performed for about 5minutes before she came on stage singing her hit song and my all-time favourite Diana Ross song, 'I'm coming out'. The crowd went wild immediately she appeared on stage. She rightfully received a standing ovation. After that, she performed two songs from 'The Supremes' album. She sang songs from her 60's, 70's, 80's album. The people watching her live had a great time, especially the women. They just couldn't stop singing along, dancing and clapping in excitement. It was a beautiful thing to see. Diana would have felt really appreciated and loved.

But something happened that shouldn't have happened. At a point during her performance, a man clad in agbada carrying a bunch of flowers tried to climb the stage to give the flowers to Diana but she stopped him with a hand gesture, and said 'you have no right to come on my stage' then she continued singing. The embarrassed 'big man' disrespectfully threw the flowers on stage beside Diana, who still paid no attention to him. Somebody from her crew came to pick the flowers up. After that particular performance, Diana left the stage. Now, I don't know if she left the stage because of the incident or if she'd been planning to leave after that performance but anyway, she came back on stage and performed 'I will Survive'. I guess somebody backstage must have told her she hadn't performed the particular song Nigerian's love to bits. That was her final performance and she left the stage amidst shouting, clapping and hailing from the crowd.

Did I also tell you that she changed 5 times? And the speed at which she changed was alarming, especially because her clothes were tight fitting/figure hugging. She's been performing for over 45 years now, she must know the tricks of changing outfits fast. Anyway, apart from the flower incident, everything went well. It was her first time in Nigeria, Let's hope she had a good time.

After the two performances, I went to bed. Congrats to everyone who won an award. By the way, does anyone know how I can contact Lemar? He looks like the man I saw in my dream. lol