Can Bongo Flava learn from Dayna Nyange?

Dar es Salaam. Bongo Flava is a complicated place where sometimes the scandals and the conflicts dominate the music that is being played, in fact on many occasions personality issues are at play.

The stories are usually almost the same as they range from who is sleeping with who to is driving what car, a bit trivial but that is our way of life.

They fight for almost everything from the naming rights to buying views on Youtube and Vevo, whatever it is, the fans too have been lured into it and it is therefore just healthy to belong to a certain team with the flimsiest of all reasons.

And for that matter, no one is willing to concede any grounds at all, for they are all big enough to be considered superstars!

In 2013 a conflict between Diamond and Dayna which had been simmering for sometime was fully blown after latter accused the former of some double standards.

According to Dayna the beats to Diamond’s Number One which was produced by Sheddy Clever was supposed to be her project and that Diamond was supposed to feature as a guest artist.

Though the original hit despite being a club banger across East Africa, it didn’t make it past 7 million views on Youtube, it is however the remix of the same song featuring Davido that is believed to have given Diamond his International breakthrough.

Today, it stands as one of the most viewed songs by Diamond with close to 29 million views, arguably the most by any Tanzanian artiste has achieved in modern era.

It is a talk and conflict that ensued thereafter was not very healthy, there were those who blamed Diamond for going against the gentlemanly arrangement which they had struck if at all there was any.

On the other side the realists say Dayna didn’t own the beat and as the norm is in modern day Bongo Flava the beats to the song remains the property of the producer.

The producer’s verdict didn’t help matters either as he reaffirmed that the rights to the beats solely belonged to him, not otherwise and that he had consciously decided to grant Diamond the permission to use it. Sheddy Clever who also produced her breakthrough single featuring Barnabas, ‘Nivute Kwako’ had decided to switch camp, a shift of loyalty towards someone who was first becoming a force on the Tanzanian music front.

As the debate raged on Dayna was left destroyed with no option but to complain, a move that fell on deaf ears, as her own version of the song hard gained very little airplay on radio stations.

Mending fences

This week the two artistes were part of the Tanzanian contingent that was at the Afrimma Awards in Dallas Texas where Diamond emerged winner of the Best East African Male category. Of the thousands who celebrated this victory was Dayna who was seated just a seat away from the Hallelujah hit maker.

“Wow We won !” on her snapchat, this was followed by an instagram post that read,’Proud of my brother @diamondplatnumz for the win’.

On that night she had been one of the lucky people to award the Ghetto Kids from Uganda the awards of best Dancing group.

In defending her post Dayna said she meant it and that there was nothing bad about her commending Diamond for his effort because at the end of the day the trophy had come home.

According to her the rift that was between them was now all in the past because she didn’t see any reason to continue with it. “ I met Diamond at the US embassy in Dar es Salaam and since we were all coning to Dallas we struck a conversation. There was this deep sitting feeling that something had gone wrong in the past but I did not see any reason to pursue it any further,” she said.

It was no wonder that they shared the same limousine while heading to the awards night and thereafter.

Her move to bury the hatchet was quickly hailed by some observers who say it was all about maturity because it wasn’t taking her anywhere.

She has done what some of the stars in the industry have failed to do and maybe they will take a leaf from her – to forgive and forget. Only time will tell!