TPF’s Alpha Apologises to EABL
In a spectacular turn of events, previous Tusker Project Fame winner Alpha has had a change of heart from recent remarks he had made about East African Breweries Limited not supporting the artistes it churns out of the region’s biggest reality TV contest.
‘I want to give big thanks to EABL as one of those many doors that God chose to channel my career through and now am here,’ said Alpha in a statement on his website earlier, going on to say, ‘Before Tusker Project Fame 3 I (struggled with) the music industries in Rwanda, where it was not easy to make it outside East Africa.’
In the lengthy post, Alpha outlined what his career has been like; the challenges he has faced, his aspirations and inspirations as well as talking about other musicians in the industry as well as the numerous awards he managed to secure.
‘I want to take this opportunity to (apologise) to my fans that might have been hurt due to the opinion that (I) posted on Facebook a few days ago,’ he added, making an apologetic rejoinder, ‘I never meant to offend any of you neither EABL. I felt I had to release my heart, by saying what I felt.’
Alpha sought to soften his tone and was careful with his wordings as he talked about what motivates him, and probably others to join a competition such as Tusker Project Fame: ‘(Some of) these reasons, among many, may be exposure, money and the one year recording deal.’
But he stuck to some of his sentiments stating that, ‘Yes, winners get exposure and money but when it comes to the recording deal, it becomes so hard to get it as promised. Binding contracts, late delivery of the contract to the artist which makes the artist wonder what to do in between that moment of waiting and this causes lack of focus (on the part of the artiste) and some of them end up being disappointed because the music industry is too fast to wait which causes frustrations and pressure to most of them.’
Alpha may have been responding to earlier remarks made by Universal Music Group’s Gerald Foster saying that he was ‘difficult to work with’ and that he disappeared for a long period of time without contacting anyone. All this, Alpha said, resulted in a wrong perception of musicians by their fans thinking that they are lazy.
He stuck to his mark by vehemently concluding, ‘My request to EABL is just simple, fulfill the promises to the artists as soon as you can,’ but quizzically finished, ‘and when an artist’s fails you have nothing to be blamed for.’
