Victor Bannerman-Chedid, a digital transformation expert and panel member for the maiden edition of The Showbiz Conference has asked musicians and aspiring musicians alike to ask themselves if the business is really their calling.

During the event that took place on Thursday 11 August 2022, while he dished out salient points for music acts to note on their career path, he pensively suggested, “Ask yourself this as an artiste, is this really your calling?”

The auditorium brimming over with musicians, music executives, media personnel, etc, went up in laughter and applause.

Lynx Entertainment founder Richie Mensah waded in, “You know the comment he just made that, is this your calling, most artistes will take that as, are you talented enough? That’s not what it means.”

In elaborating, he continued, “Can you be consistent enough? Are you psychological strong enough for this? Are you okay that when you song finally starts doing well [you can stand the public criticism?]”

He cited two instances concerning his label signees to highlight his point, “Okay. KiDi. Do you know the first time KiDi trended on Twitter? Do you know what he trended for? They said the jacket he wore to [the] VGMAs was for his father cos it was too big. That’s when KiDi trended for the first time on Twitter. Not because his music was nice. Not because of his voice.

“I remember MzVee’s first VGMAs nomination. She got seven nominations and by the time they’d announced six of the nominations she hadn’t won any. Then somebody tweeted: it be like this year MzVee go win afro comb of the year.”

“Are you psychologically strong enough for this? Do you know what it actually takes to get there and when you finally think getting there is a good thing, you’re getting trolled, attacked, people are crushing your spirit. If not, chale…” he cautioned.

Victor Bannerman-Chedid is the principal consultant for OWL Ventures.

The 2022 Showbiz Conference was held under the theme: The Digital Era and Showbiz.