8th March, 2013
Last Saturday in Luanda, capital of Angola, P-Square held the audience in thrall. The occasion was the 2013 Sons Do Atletico Festival. With the overwhelming success of their foreign gigs and repertoire of hit songs, the twin brothers’ musical career has been on a steep ascent. Over 35,000 fans watched the Nigerian stars perform with their eight-man band.
The event is a follow-up to P-Square’s sold out concerts in the US, UK, Uganda, Cameroun, Congo, Zimbabwe, Ghana and Rwanda among others.
In 2012, P-Square successfully pushed for more international recognition, with collaborations with Akon, Rick Ross and France’ Matt Houston on the remix of their hit cut, E No Easy.
On 1 December, 2012, they staged one of the best concerts in Ghana. In Harare, Zimbabwe, P-Square equally had a spectacular outing. With over 34,000 tickets sold, they cemented their position as the most sought-after African music export.
Also, on Thursday, 13 December, P-Square, accompanied by their 12-man band, flew on a private jet to Kigali, the capital of Rwanda, where they performed at the Amahoro Stadium. The concert, which drew over 100,000 fans, has been dubbed the most successful concert in Rwanda. This was followed by another gig at Lugogo Cricket Stadium, Kampala, Uganda.
On 26 August at London’s HMV Apollo, P-Square mesmerised their fans at the 2012 Afro Beats Festival. P-Square’s energetic dance routine and collection of monster hit songs rendered at the concert was described as the best by any Nigerian artiste in the UK so far. Tottenham Hotspur star, Emmanuel Adebayor, who was a special guest at the event, joined the singers on stage.
Adebayor described P-Square as “the best music export from Nigeria and Africa as a whole,” claiming that their stage presence and coordination are second to none.
The performance climaxed with P-Square’s performance of Alingo, their latest single. Though the song was released few weeks before the show, fans sang along ethusiastically. Shortly after this, P-Square dedicated one of their hit songs, Beautiful Onyinye, to their late mother, Mrs. Josephine Okoye.
The twin brothers are unlikely to regret their decision to dump football for music. At home and abroad, P-Square are a hit. In 2010, the group won the Best African Act award at the KORA All African Music Awards held in Ouagadougou, capital of Burkina Faso. The president of the country, Blaise Campaore, ordered that his private should be used to bring P-Square from London, where they had just finished a tour at the time the awards ceremony was taking place in Ouagadougou.
The P-Square story began at St. Murumba College, Jos, 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, 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 perform at school functions and other occasions.
In 1999, they went to music school to develop their skills on keyboard, bass and rhythm guitar. Their works in those days included soundtracks 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, variously called Double P, P&P and Da Pees before finally settling for P-Square.
In 2001, P-Square won the Grab Da Mic competition, which earned them sponsorship of their debut album by Benson & Hedges, the sponsor of the talent hunt programme. Their first album, Last Night, earned them a KORA nomination barely three months after its release.
Their breakthrough 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 the game. It contained monster cuts like Do Me, No One Like You, Roll It and Ifunanya.
What followed was an equally successful release. Danger, their fourth album, had dynamite cuts like E No Easy, Possibility, I Love U, Gimme Dat, Troway and Break It.
P Square have invaded many homes, hearts and phones with their hit songs, which have become anthems on the lips of so many people and ring tones on thousands of phones. Apparently as a result of P Square’s spectacular exploits in Africa, America and Asia, telecommunications company, Globacom, gave them a record-breaking ambassadorial deal.
On 30 July, 2011, Peter and Paul, who are unarguably the most popular twins in Africa, hosted what was described as the ‘mother of all concerts’ in Nigeria. Dubbed The Invasion, the concert, held at the prestigious Expo Hall, Eko Hotel & Suites, Lagos, was staged to herald the release of their 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, Forever, Bunieya Enu and Do As I Do, Invasion, which is jointly marketed by the biggest music marketers in Nigeria (T-Joe, Abhu Ventures and Obaino Music), 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.
— Bayo Adetu