Local musicians look to international market |29 August 2009

Organised under the theme Creativity and quality for international performances, the seminar took place at the International Conference Centre on Friday last week.

The two-hour meeting saw a variety of local artists present including musicians, singers, poets and music and radio producers. There were three main topics – what the current situation is on the local music scene, how well it is known internationally, and how to export the local culture.

 
The leader of the workshop was music producer and promoter Percy Yip-Tong, whose main aim was to share his ideas and experiences, and also to give guidelines on how the local music industry can best approach the international market.

His career has spanned 25 years, and he described himself as “a cultural militant for the Indian Ocean”.

With the help of a video documentary called Equation Musique (Music Equation), Mr Yip-Tong showed how groups such as Mauritian-based Menwar had penetrated the international scene and performed alongside world-famous artists such as the late Lucky Dube.

“My aim is to help Seychellois artists to create quality performances for the international scene,” said Mr Yip-Tong.

“It is not an easy task to penetrate such a market but it can be done, and Seychelles certainly has the rich culture and the artists to reach this level.”

He spoke about how the media can be used for publicity but also described some of the problems, such as the quality of music recorded in studios, or artists not taking traditional Seychellois music and promoting it but rather going for music already popular in other parts of the world.
 
“Although it is important to have a good voice and talent on stage, it is equally important to take what is originally from your culture and promote it,” he said.

“Artists also need to have effective marketing tools, such as a good-quality CD or DVD, a press book, good sponsorship and, above all, determination and perseverance.”

To close, Mr Yip-Tong handed out forms so all the artists’ personal and contact details can be entered into an internet website for Indian Ocean artists.