More than 40 Ghanaian bands, artists or musicians have already registered on the website www.ghanavisavis.com with the aim to be one of the twelve bands selected to perform live in front of a dozen Spanish Music Festival Directors in Accra next March 15 and 16.
After that concert, two of the bands will tour Spain next July, playing at some of the most important summer festivals in Southern Europe. The register is open until next February 15. The cultural project Vis a Vis, organized by Spain’s public diplomacy institution Casa África, seeks to foster in Spain the presence of African Music through its Music festivals.
The Ghana Vis a Vis will be the tenth edition of this project, that has already visited nine other African countries in previous editions. The Vis a Vis is held with the collaboration of Ghana’s Ministry of Tourism Arts and Culture, and has also the collaboration of the Spanish Embassy in Accra, the Ghanaian Embassy in Madrid and the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA).
To register, artists must get into the website and upload their songs in mp3, their biography, list their group members and include photos or links to music videos. All genres are welcome.
Luis Padrón, General Director of Casa África, wants to encourage any Ghanaian artist, any band or musician, “to register and show their music to us. We guarantee that the music producers that will come to Accra will listen to the music sent by all the bands registered, no matter the style, so everybody has the same chances”.
The Spanish promoters, added Mr. Padrón, “are looking for groups that become a surprise and a discovery for their audience in their festival line-ups”. Therefore, the opportunity will allow two artists to show to Spanish audiences what is going on in Ghana’s music industry.
In previous editions in other African countries, some of the Vis a Vis winners have started international careers, because Spanish festivals are often visited by European promoters looking for new artists.
Once the register is closed, the Spanish music producers coming to Accra will have some days to listen to the music and watch the videos from all the bands registered, and will choose a dozen that will perform live in a two-night program that will be held at the National Theatre in Accra next 15th and 16th March.
Apart from the performance, the dozen bands selected will have professional meetings with the Spanish promoters on 17th March, with the appropriate environment and where participants will have the opportunity to express their ideas, creations and aspirations.
So far, Vis a Vis has visited Senegal (on two occasions), Ethiopia, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire, Cape Verde, Equatorial Guinea, Tanzania and Angola. In each country, Spanish cultural promoters had the opportunity to not only listen to the live performances of twelve selected artists, but also to maintain professional meetings with them. With this cultural cooperation project, Casa África aims to contribute not only to a greater presence of African artists in the Spanish scenarios, but also to the development of the cultural industries of African countries.
Some of the Spanish festivals that have participated in the previous Vis a Vis are Pirineos Sur (Sállent de Gállego, Huesca), Etnosur (Alcalá La Real, Jaén), La Mar de Músicas (Cartagena), Festival Internacional Canarias Jazz&Más Heineken, Sin Sal Son Estrella Galicia, Festival MUMES (Tenerife), Imagina Funk (Torres, Jaén), Fuerteventura en Música, the Provincial Council of Jaén or producers like Planet Project, Radiation and Dr. Zhivago, among others.
