Sanaipei Tande opened up like never before about why she’s never booked for many shows despite her being versatile, consistent, and putting out music every other time in the music industry scene.
The multi-talented Kenyan singer/songwriter who also doubles as an Actor opened up saying how she’s had to turn down a couple of shows, events even concerts because the promoters wanted something in return.
In her Spice FM interview, she noted that promoters have always wanted something from her in return for getting booked for a show, they’ve almost always wanted sexual favors in exchange for booking her for a show. She’s always said no, a big fat one!
“I’ve lost shows because a promoter tells you he wants you to go to Naivasha to perform and we agree and there’s M-Pesa so you can send me my deposit but they want it to be a thing for why don’t we meet…have a drink, we’ll be in Nairobi this weekend, somebody is texting you at 12 pm (that) we can do something,” she said in part.
Tande who is the main character on a hit TV show ‘Kina’ added that other women in the Kenyan entertainment industry have also faced the same predicament.
She’s been told stories by many different women out there in the entertainment industry about how promoters usually try to take advantage of them by seeking out favors before giving them a gig.
“There’s casualness in the industry that I could not deal with. A lot of girls would tell me if you want a deejay to play your song you have to do a little something with him. A producer tells you he can produce a song for you for free lakini kuna vile,” she noted.
Sanaipei Tande also touched on promoters being cheap and petty sometimes by paying musicians less of what they’re worth and if artistes try to haggle the performance price, they ditch them and settle for somebody cheaper.
The ‘Amina’ hitmaker says a lot of musicians are struggling out here and a lot of promoters are taking advantage of them. Sometimes, most of these artistes usually take the shenanigans the promoters usually pull because at the end of the day, they’re chasing that payday and they want that money (regardless of how little it is to take care of their situations).
“Somebody would want you to perform for like an hour and they want to give you Ksh.40,000.
I probably must get dancers, a band…unfortunately, when you push for more money they decide to go with somebody cheaper,” the singer who has been in the entertainment and music industry for more than 10 years said.
All Sanaipei has to urge the entertainment industry is for them to be creative enough and help push quality content out there because at the end of the day, content is always readily available and she knows this to be true.
“We have quality in this country, I recently did the Remembering Whitney concert. I was in shock, the ladies who were called, not known names or brands but they have beautiful voices and beautiful stage presence, they should be in the forefront but they say they are not interested because we support mediocrity,” Sanaipei Tande who wants nothing but positive change in the entertainment industry said.
