The act of innovating requires a certain level of risk fueled by a vision.
To do something different from the norm requires a certain level of confidence, but an aptitude to challenge the norm to carve a new way of doing something.
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RnB global superstar John Legend seems to have harnessed that innovative energy to carve a new way of connecting to fellow musicians on a global scale.
Years ago, musicians used to contact other artists through tedious processes hosting an audition which meant securing a venue to comb through hundreds of potential talents – just for duets or back up singers.
If you’ve lived long enough you know that sometimes the most gifted people in the world, sometimes never meet with opportunity.
Back to Mr Legend
The RnB singer recorded himself singing a song from his latest album Legend.
Singing the song titled Nervous the muso, recorded a verse from his song, and publicly challenged fellow musicians to collaborate with him on the track using TikTok.
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Titled the Nervous: Open verse challenge, on TikTok Legend begins singing lyrics to his debut song only to stop after a verse and wait for a fellow artist to join in.
@johnlegend #OpenVerseChallenge ♬ Nervous Open Verse Challenge – John Legend
Global magic
The video with over 67 000 views, 1755 comments and and increasing 2956 shares seems to have ticked all the right notes on the video sharing app.
Platinum selling singer and songwriter Mthandazo Gatya, rose to the challenge.
Gatya singing in one of South Africa’s native languages, Zulu, added a light, and spirited emotion to the Legend hit.
Thousands commented to ask Legend to close the challenge since a clear winner for the challenge was presumed to be Gatya.
Gatya, a serenading Zulu musician quickly encompassed the song’s message and delivered a Zulu interpretation of a man still getting nervous at the site of his love.
With over 1.2 million views and increasing, Gatya’s video quickly trended with the artist translating I still get nervous into Zulu.
The talented Gatya’s verse explains how his knees still buckle when he sees his muse, a perfect combination of two musicians worlds apart, with one common heart string.
@mthandazogatya #duet with @John Legend #nervous #johnlegend #openversechallenge #fytシ
Gatya on social media thanked everyone who made sure that Legend saw his input.
He confirmed Legend loved the mix, but wouldn’t say what the next move would be.
Thank you all for make sure John Legend sees my duet, great news is that he loved it and replied, as to what will happen next, we can leave that to God, thank you from the bottom of my heart
#eskom #loadshedding #Stage6 pic.twitter.com/8AwVVFBqBH — #JourneyToInfityEPOutNow (@MthandazoGatya) September 18, 2022
Faster connections
Social media has become the critical tool for any artist, brand and company.
Emerging platforms such as TikTok, WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram have fast become the engines to build real-time connections between artists and their fans.
Artists to date can simply post new content on their social media platforms for fans to get news straight to their phones.
This allows direct connections between artists and their music consumers.
A positive shift from the way duets were put together in the past.
Legends idea to appeal for a duet online – through TikTok, solidifies how technology has fast solidified that the world has become a global village.
While most social media platforms have seen growth since 2020, TikTok takes the crown, as the fastest growing social media channel in 2022.
The content creation app appears to have struck the right strings on what consumers want, quick content, style hacks, and technology updates all in under 30 seconds.
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