Stereo Africa Festival – Between Masterclass and Unplugged Sessions

For one day, I put aside my journalist hat to wear that of an artist. I signed up for the Music Publishing Masterclass hosted by Sheer Publishing, a publishing company based in South Africa.

This activity was facilitated by an artist who needs no introduction in Senegal or internationally, Nix, who was both a translator from English to French and vice versa but also acted as a speaker given his expertise in the field.

After an introduction to the fundamentals of publishing, Sheer Publishing covered topics surrounding copyright, ways to generate income from our music, and how to protect it. I learned a lot from this masterclass, but I especially realized that I didn’t know much about the publishing world. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to attend the second day of the masterclass, which lasted two days, but I plan to do my homework after this rich learning experience.

In the evening, it was time to head to the Blaise Senghor Cultural Centre for the finale of the Unplugged sessions, which are also part of the festival.

Several groups performed in front of a jury of five people, including the festival’s founder, Sahad Sarr, Saphia Arhzaf, and also Elkin Robinson, the Colombian artist I told you about here.

My favorite of the finalists was undoubtedly the artist whose name I don’t remember, but who played guitar with her father. She blended singing and rapping seamlessly.

The three winners of this competition were revealed following a deliberation by the jury members and will be supported for a year by Sahad Sarr’s independent music label, Stéréo Africa 432, which discovers local talent and supports them in the development of their careers.

Photo Credit: Cheikh Oumar Diallo