Congo Vibes
Music => Congolese Music => Topic started by: Mfumu Vata on September 11, 2024, 00:05
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Today, it’s 25 years ago that JB Mpiana performed at Olympia Bruno Coquatrix. l’Olympia is France most mythic musichall. French pop-artists mostly perform there when they breakthrough the music-scene. At the time that JB Mpiana performed at Olympia, there were barely African artists that performed there. The African artists that would perform at Olympia, would mostly come from Northern Africa. It was only on rare occasions that artists from Subsaharan-Africa would perform there. The first African male artist to perform at Olympia was Tabu Ley Rochereau in 1970, after Myriam Makeba (who would perform there as American artist) and an Egyptian female artist in 1969 (I forgot her name). In the years that followed, the only Congolese artist that performed there was Abeti Masikini (1971, twice in 1973 and 1986). Orchestre Sosoliso missing their occasion in 1975, after Franco orchestrating a complot against them.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Whxc-iGanQ8
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Fq1mkCQSxoM&pp=ygUNQWJldGkgb2x5bXBpYQ%3D%3D
The performance of Koffi Olomidé at Olympia in 1998 opened the door for Congolese artists and from then it wasn’t a myth anymore to perform there.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HG4GZDzsB8Y&pp=ygUcT2x5bXBpYSBrb2ZmaSBpZ3dlanVuaW9yMTAzMA%3D%3D
Before that JB Mpiana performed at Olympia, he had several problems. The rivalry with Werrason became at some pikt intense and made him in no time being one of the most hated artists (He would refer to it in the song Acapella) Especially from the moment when his name was mentioned for being behind the plot to block Werrason to get visa’s for the Schengen Area, while he had nothing to do with it. As revenge for the visa problems, the camp of Maison Mere decided to plan a concert in Villejuif the same day as JB Mpiana’s event at Zénith de Paris, which was already planned for months. After the concert, people that even weren’t at the event, claimed that the show was really bad. JB Mpiana would also be mocked for weeks by not only the Maison-Mere for not selling Zénith out, but also Quartier Latin (Savanet Depitcho, JF Ifongé, Champion Djikapela and Zingeti le Ras Kaback) in Kinshasa, not being happy that JB already performed at Zénith after a few month from their event and hoping that he would fail (before the event at Zénith, there was a big polemic going on when JB’s car was burned by Zoulou-gangsters and then later confessing that they were sended by Koffi, who was apparently not happy that he bought the same car like him)
https://youtu.be/inUiS2-aj-s?si=2uCd0VbpSX_GGMBj
https://youtu.be/93yC-cj5ACU?si=DnWiMoOv9fLEFKXR
But things changed from the moment the VHS of JB Mpiana’s Zénith came out. People being surprised about the sound of the concert (at the that time the sound of Congolese concerts in Europe were often not really good), also about the way they did a long medley of more than an 1 hour, the choreography, etc. JB Mpiana immediately earned a lot of respect because of that concert (ACMCO would voted the concert as best concert of the year, towards the end of 1999). The show it self would influence Congolese bands to start their big shows in Paris with medleys of 2/3 songs, but they never gave BCBG the credit for being influenced by them. However the problems were still not done. People in Europe were wondering where Blaise Bula was, only to know that he already left and started preparing his album in Kinshasa. Also fingers being pointed at Alain Mpela for Makaba’s departure, after that stories were spread about him not allowing Makaba to go on stage.
https://youtu.be/Xhfrazgyfuk?si=rLnO4JRtyBldFiJU
https://youtu.be/8XxCt3FBtbU?si=xacHmC9lIur-w1L5
https://youtu.be/QZD4JuJa9yw?si=Gk2U_5mxUnzlL8PW
After Zénith, late Monsieur Simon came with a contract for Olympia. JB was then wondering what he could give the public, after already having performed at Zénith. Because when Koffi Olomidé performed the previous year at Olympia, journalists and music-fans criticized him for not coming with something new or social at Zénith de Paris, three months later. Because of that, JB Mpiana decided to contact choreographer Maitre Kembo, who collaborated with Zaïko Langa Langa and Mbilia Bel for big Kinshasa shows in the late 1980s and 1990s, to come with ideas. In addition, the new artistic director Titina Al Capone, who was the brain behind the Zénith-show they prepare for almost 5 months, came with a new concept for Olympia.
Before preparing Olympia, Wenge BCBG went to Canada for a series of concerts. After performing in Toronto, Aimelia and the dancers Miette Shegue and late Patricia Bingetox were victim of a huge car accident. The accident got late Patricia paralyzed. Aimelia who was already in bad terms with JB and some bandmembers would later get punished by not getting allowed to sing in TH. Having already a bad reputation due to rumors about Manda Chante and Blaise Kembo inter past, those who weren’t liking JB would spread rumors that he wanted to sacrifice his own musicians for his album and anti-BCBG journalists in Kinshasa writing articles in newspapers with those claims.
https://youtu.be/0PJiuxc0h88?si=IMRLZ-GvCiMKz43x
https://youtu.be/ephnAQdhTfU?si=N9ueyslpjd5vvLT8
When returning back in Europe. Wenge BCBG would start the preparations of Olympia and perform in meantime in Geneva, Brussels and London.
The show of JB Mpiana at Olympia took place one week after that of his rival Werrason, who performed the week before at Palais des Sports. The show ended up by being a big success. The Congolese and French-speaking African press would praise JB Mpiana for having performed at Olympia with his age. Because back then many African artists that performed at Olympia were already in their 40s, but JB Mpiana being 32 years old at that time. Also people liked how the set-up of the show was (folklore, intro, jb entrance, medley, the choreography’s, etc.). During the concert JB Mpiana also received from his manager Simon Ndjonang a gold record for his solo-album Feux de l’Amour, that had sold 150.000 copies around the world. It was quickly contested by King Kester Emeneya and journalist Zacharie Bababaswe who went to record a VHS called “Dossier Disque d’Or” going to SACEM to look if the gold records that Koffi received for Loi, Papa Wemba for Emotion and JB Mpiana for Feux de l’Amour were real. It created a lot of polemic.
https://youtu.be/vrNtOYYT2EM?feature=shared
JB Mpiana gold record for Feux de l’Amour was seen as a victory, not only for himself but also for his fans. In their eyes JB Mpiana hadn’t to prove anything, because he had already done Zénith & Olympia and received a gold record while his rival (Werrason) had in their eyes, a long way to go, to prove that. BCBG would came a lot of noise about it in EP “Ya Pas Photo, Ya Pas Match” and the album TH.
https://youtu.be/tgYXRFjBkm0?si=xrIgIqoV_CQKOxTc
https://youtu.be/HxObja_bKVg?si=03Ra4omdMAyl-m7c
https://youtu.be/icfIJxH1KCo?si=8m6x1mhFtUmrdOQK
The fanswere so overwhelmed that they claimed that JB Mpiana hadn’t a place anymore to perform in Paris and that only Stade de France was left. It started first as a joke, but Roger Ngandu who was in Kinshasa started to take it seriously and announced it on tv-channels that they would perform there in 2001.
https://youtu.be/5FRdwUZs960?si=e_z03db0qGHRLL6-
Like the Zénith-show, the release of the show at Olympia would made JB once again earn a lot of respect and ACMCO voting it as the best concert of the 20th century (it was contested by many people who saw it as disrespect towards the big shows Abeti made at Palais du Peuple, Cine Palladium abroad with his band and the many shows of Tabu Ley in Zaïre, the US and Olympia). JB Mpiana really set the bar high for Olympia. It made his idol Papa Wemba having the same question for his own Olympia the following year, after performing at Zénith, about what to give to the public.
https://youtu.be/8qPbs5T4oGs?si=LUg-Kus69I42ueWn
https://youtu.be/cTVpkLZYGx8?si=bbMhsrnb0Sn4pd-Q
The work that Maitre Kembo did for JB at Olympia, made Koffi contact him to collaborate for Bercy and train his dancers. JB would contact him 2 years later again for Bercy, which made Koffi furious and threatening him, especially for having recruited Bibi Sucre, who was one of his favorites, but at the same time left behind in Kinshasa for Zénith 2002. It resulted in Maitre Kembo attacking him on tv when being on tv with the dancers.
https://youtu.be/fttpoMIFlnc?si=pyc0sP74Blsd4TGa
From 2:33 min
The succes of Zénith and Olympia made the BCBG fans impatient for JB’s return to Kinshasa and wondering how the show at Stade des Martyrs would be. Titina Al Capone and Burkina Faso would like Zenith being praised for their work at Olympia and the same for Aimelia “La voix Le plus aigue”. People being amazed about how he was able to scream “eeeeeeeeh” seconds long without breathing during Papito. The fans of BCBG and journalists were really waiting for Aimelia, only to discover that he decided to stay in Europe, when BCBG returned
https://youtu.be/YpMCp_nWAf0?si=Nrp3HqkZ27BhE-oZ
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Performance and concert wise 1999 was JB's year, he was untouchable and was at his peak there. Then Maison Mere came with arguably the album of the year with Solola Bien
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https://youtu.be/5FRdwUZs960?si=B81nGN8D4IcchQbN
I really liked the sebene and choreography from 1:59:35, such a shame Jb didn’t use that sebene in TH. You could tell Aimelia didn’t practice the choreography with them hahahaha, one of the rare moments when Kibens and Chai actually danced good.
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He used it in the song Mohammed Kaniansy towards the end
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2oAxArRuhbw
from 6:48 min