Music they say gives soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination, and life to everything. Music is healing, it is an explosive expression of humanity, something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we’re from, everyone loves music and that is why we are particularly excited about this week, which has been reserved to celebrate World Music Day.
Imagine a week dedicated to all things music. That week is here, Make Music Lagos is the global celebration of World Music Day, held annually on June 21. Launched in 1982 in France as the Fête de la Musique, it has become a celebration held on the same day in more than 1,000 cities across 120 countries. Open to everyone, regardless of age or skill level, this weeklong event calls for people to pour into their communities and share music with the world. Every year, hundreds of thousands of people from across the world transform their city into a dance music paradise.
Completely different from a typical music festival, Make Music is a multi-venue event, open to anyone who wants to take part. Every kind of musician — young and old, amateur, and professional, of every musical persuasion, shares their music with friends, neighbors, and strangers. All of it is free, un-ticketed, and open to the public. In 2016 Make Music Day activities found another unique home in Lagos Nigeria and has since organized over 100 musical events and over 500 artists have performed on the Make Music Lagos platform.
Now in its sixth year, Make Music Lagos unifies events all over Lagos as it opens its doors for a week-long marathon of music events from 21st to 27th June across multiple physical and virtual locations in Lagos to collectively feature almost every major artist in the music scene. The lineup of events includes Learn to Play, Learn to DJ, Live from Home Concert, New Music Marathon, Pop-up Worship, Music Business Conference, My Song is Your Song, Shutdown Concert among others.
Make Music Lagos is made up of partners who work together to organise and promote Make Music Day. This year, MTN has partnered with Make Music Lagos to deliver memorable experiences through exciting event categories like the MTN Live from home concert where talented artists like KhemmieSings, J’Dees, Bibicentric, David Operah, Idono, and others perform live on their Instagram pages. My Song is Your Song is another event category where local artists are paired with foreign artists to perform a cover of each other’s tracks. This event gets more exciting as MTN will be giving out amazing prices to select local artists in the Best Cover Challenge. The Music Business Conference, a sponsored event category would take place on the 24th of June and includes two-panel sessions to discuss ‘The structure and future of the music business and an interesting discussion on ‘Women inclusion in the music business’ Panelists include Yemi Alade, Burna Boy’s Mum Bose Ogulu, amongst others. There is also the New Music Marathon happening on the 25th of June, two-hour-long airplay of songs never played on the radio. Here, artists submit fresh and original singles for verification, to be aired on Y’ello Top 10.
Make Music Lagos will climax at the Shutdown concert, the grand finale of the celebration of world music day in Lagos, happening on the 26th of June at Muson Centre. In the last 5 years, the attendance for this concert counts up to thousands. Big acts in Nigeria like King Sunny Ade, Bez, Johnny Drille, Ladipoe, Waje, Omawumi, to list a few have graced the Shutdown stage. The Shutdown event will be a hybrid event this year with A-list artists like Iyanya, Brymo, Femi Leye, MI Abaga, and Dotti of MTN Y’ello Star giving high-octane performances that will send the city of Lagos and the continent reverberating.
How can you be involved? Make Music Lagos is open to everyone and you can get involved by hosting an event, volunteering with the Make Music Team, providing resource support, attending a Make Music Lagos event, and spreading the word about Make Music Lagos. There are a lot of musical performances by artists, ready to treat everyone to special live musical performances. There you have it, let’s make music this week Lagos!
