Culture

Jain is a musician from France, but she’s lived all over the world during her teens, from Dubai to the Republic of Congo and even in South Africa, where the music video for ‘Makeba’ was shot. The song’s name is a reference to Miriam Makeba, a well-known South African singer and songwriter during the 50s and 60s. Her mother used to play it at home, and she noticed how different the African beat and rhythm is to that of the Middle East and Europe. In the music video, it’s smart editing and visual effects that bring simple ideas together to give the video the rhythm that perfectly taps into the African beat.

As she turns knobs on the sound deck, street poles rise up or fall down, buildings rise and lower. From balloons being popped and crates being packed on top of each other to simulate the beat and volume to painting the lines on a zebra – these are just some of the many creative concepts in this art-filled music video.

This had to take a lot of planning and pre-production, but the execution is superb. For me, the music video showed that large budgets aren’t needed. It’s about getting the ideas together and building on that to get the body of work together to make the video.

Read more about Jain and her history here and listen to Mariam Makeba, her inspiration for the song here.

In just a few years, Nigeria has climbed the cinematic ladder and pushed Tinseltown into third (with Bollywood in India holding the top spot). Today, Nigeria is inundated with aspiring moviemakers whose productions are generatingmulti-million-dollar blockbusters and the obligatory glamorous red carpet events.