Olele Salvador Asks Entertainers to Prep Themselves Well Before Interviews

Ghanaian Entertainment Journalist and Co-host of 3Music TV’s Culture Daily Emmanuel Kwame Sarpong, popularly referred to as Olele Salvador, has cautioned entertainers to be well-prepared before showing up for interviews.

In reviewing Reggae-Dancehall artist Stonebwoy’s interview on The Breakfast Club, he asserted that having an interview goes beyond talking about one’s craft and promoting it. He highlights that interviewees must do research on vital areas before having interviews since the media has grown beyond certain standards and has taken different dynamics.

“Journalists have built profiles for themselves over the years. Just as a journalist would go through the process to research information about you, you also should not just see the interview as just an interview. We at Culture Daily are seeking to position ourselves in a way that when an artiste decides to come here, he should come prepared. Because we are not going to ask you how your music is doing in Togo or Benin. We are going to go deeper. Because the whole idea is we know about your music already but many people may not know certain things about you. Your beliefs. What are your business arguments? As an artiste going into an interview, prepare yourself.”    

Rapper and Record Producer who also doubles as a co-host on the Culture Daily show Cyril-Alex Gockel, better known as C-Real added that entertainers for years have viewed the media as a promotional tool only, hence, miss the bigger picture of using it as a medium for proper branding.

“If you are going into an interview and it’s Jay Foley, look at how he has done his last interviews. In your mind, it’s because of your new track that’s why you come here, but it’s a 45 minutes interview. We are not going to talk about your track for 45 minutes. So you have to do some preparation. I think the gap between reality and expectation is that for a very long time, artists have only focused on using the media as a promotional tool as opposed to as a branding tool. What Stonebwoy did was brand building. It wasn’t promotional. There’s a big difference. When you go on a platform for promotion, they will talk about your song. We can talk about the song but the brand can be in shambles. So when you are going for an interview you need to know whether it’s a brand building you are doing which is PR. Brand building is PR. Going to present yourself as knowledgeable, as poised, as matured.”

During the review of Stonebwoy’s interview, the Culture Daily team asserted that the Dancehall Artiste positioned himself well and gave articulated responses.