A [Teddy Afro] tale of betrayal...?
Been thinking of writing a blog entitled "Alamn alena libe" - How Teddy Afro let me down but words refused to come. It's true that I have felt a kick in the shin (wherever "the shin" is) when I watched the music video for that song [and "Lambadina"! Why, I wondered, does the girl have to be so pretty?! The guy is supposed to be blind, isn't he?! So all he needed was a woman's body and her loving heart to help him see the light; which is actually - HELLO - what the song was all about].
Because, before I watched it's music video, I have always thought that song, that "Alamn alena libe", belonged to me, that it was my story teddy was telling {and I know what it means to be jealous- trust me- have scored "86-100% Pathological Jealous" on an internet Personality Trait Test ferChristake}. Have also felt "melkwan yizaw wet'ta, tadia endet limenat" and "bel imenat libe chewa new kemisewa" were two lines in a lyrics I have yet to find matches for. But the minute I watched the video, I was like "wot-the-{you know}-SHUT YOUR MOUTH" (P.S. I mean "fuck").
I guess it ain't Teddy's fault that I felt I knew and understood him perfectly. That's no doubt what every satisfied member of the audience feels. Same reason why members of the satisfied audience sometimes try to stalk their idols ass. Because they feel they know and understand their idol better than anybody and they would be able to make him/her happy {better than anybody}. I know that! But somehow I hadn't imagined Teddy's character in "Alamn alena libe" to be wearing a pimp's clothing and his model girlfriend/wife to have "chewa kemis" walking, I'd like to stress, in such an enticing way! JLO, I've felt, would have a thing or two to learn from that woman when it comes to butt shaking; and we all know what a great butt-shaker JLO is.
Which is why I wondered afterwards what the world was coming to! Ethipia-atleast. For "Teddy Afro" would have been the last guy in the music world I supposed would fall into the trap that so many movie and music makers in Ethiopia have/are being victimis of {not with that background, with his spending all that time in those "chaat" bets, with Kuku Sebsibe}. He was the last person on earth, I felt, who needed to prove himself with pimp-like baggy pants and mansion-like houses in his music videos, even if he can afford them. I mean the kid is the picture of success, ain't he?! That look! That smile! That talent!!
"Wey mekari matat" yilal yagere sew - sichegrew!!
I mean, have these people {Teddy included---coz he ain't the teddy afro "I knew" and loved, not anymore!!} not seen Wegayehu Nigatu {my "Wegish" - nefsun yimarewna} play "Enat nesh", a tale of famine and displacement, in such a way that it makes you forget how terrible famine and displacement actually are {for an Ethiopian} some twenty years ago?! Isn't that what it's all about?! Telling it beautifully?! Telling it naturally?! Isn't that what they repeatedly tell us - to be true to ourselves and our characters, our audience?! Or do they expect the audience to take their songs to his/her bosom and feel it was "his/hers" when he/she sees them shooting it's music video in those clothes and in that house even to fit "an international standard"?! Don't they know how disillusioning that is to an audience?! It's like being invited to a party one can't attend because one knows one would stick out like a sore thumb. It's like we don't matter anymore! That our "standard" [our shaky houses, our un-model-like clothes] don't matter anymore! It's like, when it comes to the question of "fitting international standards", we dissolve into the background. We, who made him the first Ethiopian singer to have signed off his album for a million birr! Those mini bus chauffeurs who go on bid to buy his photographs!!
It's just too much! It almost feels like being betrayed by somebody you loved and trusted; almost like a kick in the shin {wherever "the shin" is}!
If I were Teddy, I'd take it real slow {on the fame, on his dressing code, on the "chaat"} lest what happened to Gigi on her last album happens to him. Or is he trying to "masterat" our [collective] names [Ethiopia!] by becoming another Hailegebreselassie? If that's the case, don't we have so many of them already? I mean, only the other day I read Teklemedhin minamin has become the first Ethiopian skier to have made it into the Olympics. And it's not like anybody gave a shit if Teklemedhin minamin became the 87th skier out of 94 {as long as our flag was seen waving somewhere in the stadium}.
Am I the only one who think that's ridiculous?!
P.S. I still haven't understood what purpose the girl in brown, who walked hand in hand with Teddy in "Seleme", served either. Unless she's his girlfriend. Because then we would know he ain't available or with Kuku anymore.
P.S.2. I guess I wrote my blog already ;).
