P-Square to seranade Dar ‘personally

Dar es Salaam. The countdown has been on for what is slated to be one of the hottest live shows in Dar es Salaam this year.

The main attraction of the day will be Nigerian duo Peter and Paul a.k.a  P- Square who follow in the footsteps of other international artistes to have performed in Dar in the last 12 months or so.

According to reliable sources the duo plus their band arrived in Dar es Salaam last night.

From the date when it was officially announced that P-Square would perform here, Dar has been a busy place from the moment the tickets went up on sale.

The promos have been on and it is just the hottest ticket in town.

The duo are a hot property whose fame transcends continental limitations and as a matter of fact their calendar is fully booked with shows in the US and Europe.

They have fans in almost every corner of the world including Manchester United’s goal machine Robin Van Persie.

With hardly a week after Peter got married, the two who’ll come to Dar in the company of an 11-man band, will give their fans something that has made them the most popular twins on the continent.

Their fans have been conditioned to expect nothing but a prolific output of the highest grade of music in a career that reaches new heights every year, with seamless party hits that drive audiences wild.

The twin brothers are unlikely to look back and regret their decision to abandon football for music.

No doubt, P Square is the most successful African act, and this is evident with the massive success of their numerous concerts across the continent.

 Over the years, the three time MTV award winning group has made an enviable impact in Africa, doing sold out concerts. And the demand is still growing stronger.

Clinching numerous awards both from the local and international scenes is one of P Square’s rewards of hard work, resilience and sheer dedication as entertainers. In fact as some say, they have even lost count of their awards.

P Square’s grass to grace story began in St. Murumba College, Jos in  the 1990s, where they joined a music and drama club. They began singing, dancing and miming songs by MC Hammer, Bobby Brown and Michael Jackson.

They later formed an acapella quartet called MMPP. Drawing inspiration from their idol, the late Michael Jackson, they started break dancing, and formed a group called Smooth Criminals in 1997.

Their artistic talent and enchanting dance routine soon made them household names in Jos, where they would perform at school functions and other occasions.

In 1999, Peter and Paul returned to music school to develop their skills on keyboard, bass and rhythm guitar. Their works in those days included sound tracks for a number of films like Tobi, Moment of Bitterness and Evas River.   

The same year, they applied to the University of Abuja to study Business Administration. However, the Smooth Criminals disbanded when its members left for various institutions. Subsequently, Paul and Peter formed their own group, initially called Double P, P&P and Da Pees, before finally settling for P Square.

The breakthrough they needed came in 2005, with the release of their second album, Get Squared.  The album had mega hits like Story, Get Squared, Busy Body, Temptation, Omoge Mi and E Don Happen. The album scooped all the major awards on the domestic scene.

In November 2007, their third album, Game Over, confirmed them as masters of their game. It contained monster cuts like Do Me, No One Like You, Roll It, Ifunanya and many others.

Despite this spectacular success, they showed no signs of let-up, scoring another set of hugely successful cuts on their fourth album, Danger. With songs like E No Easy, Possibility, I Love U, Gimme Dat, Troway and Break It, they blew minds.

Apparently as a result of P-Square’s spectacular exploits in Africa, America and Asia, the biggest telecommunication company in Africa, Globacom, gave them a record-breaking ambassadorial deal.

The contract, which runs into several millions of Naira, did not come as a surprise to the fans of P-Square who strongly believed that the development was long overdue. 

In 2011, Peter and Paul, hosted what was described as the ‘mother of all concerts’ in the history of Nigeria at the prestigious Expo Hall, Eko Hotel & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. Dubbed The Invasion, the sold-out concert was staged to herald the release of their smoking-hot fifth album, Invasion, which was released the same month. Indeed, the album has invaded the hearts of music lovers and pundits in the Diaspora.

With monster hits like Beautiful Onyinye, Chop My Money, She Is Hot, Asamkpokoto and Do As I Do, among others, Invasion, which is jointly marketed by the biggest music marketers in Nigeria, was reported to have sold over a million copies within the first four days of its release, beating their first record of a million sales within six days with the ‘Game Over’ album.

Later in August 2012, P Square released a single titled “Alingo”, it became a smashing hit that took the whole of Africa by storm.

The video shot and co-directed by their elder brother Jude “Engees” Okoye and Clarence Peters of Capital hill Production was rated as the best video that year.  Their latest smash hit again “Personally” released mid June 2013. The video is a tribute to late Michael Jackson who inspired their musical career till to date.

The video and song is such a hit that it got the attention of  Jermaine Jackson, who commended the stars for doing such a tremendous job and hopes to meet with them soon.

In fact, if what pundits says is anything to go by, then what the twins have is a stuff of dream and no wonder they had to ditch football for music.