Simultaneously unveiled at a VIP screening of Shuga: Love, Sex, Money in Silverbird Galleria, Lagos, on Friday, March 16, 2012, as well as on Spanking New on MTV Base (DSTV Channel 322), the music video of the compelling drama series by Banky W, featuring WizKid, Bon’eye and L Tido, is still generating buzz across the continent.
Directed by Clarence Peters and shot on location in Kenya, the hit track features Banky W and his fellow artistes as well as footage from the six-part sex-and-relationships TV series, which keeps captivating audiences on MTV Base and other broadcasters across the continent since it premiered on February 14. The four artistes were commissioned by MTV Base and the MTV Staying Alive Foundation to create the track to promote the TV series and had seen the audio track released in February 2012. “The track of Shuga and the involvement of artistes like Banky W, WizKid, Bon’eye and L Tido has already attracted many new viewers to the Shuga TV franchise. We are certain that this brilliant music video will continue to extend the appeal of Shuga and enable us to disseminate Shuga’s message of safe sex practice and responsible behaviour even further,” said Georgia Arnold, executive director, MTV Staying Alive Foundation.
Featuring a cast of quality African actors and an Oscar-winning directing team, Shuga boldly addresses sexual health topics, including rape and sex-for-gifts, and told through the lives of realistic characters and emotional situations drawn from real life. According to MTV, “It’s the story of bright lives, entwining and colliding. It’s the story of morning afters and sweet departures – and the indelible marks we leave on each other.” And rightly so. Since it premiered, millions of youths across the continent and the rest of the world have continued to be gripped by the suspenseful drama series which also features a Nigerian actor, 9con (known as Femi) in one of its episodes.
Broadcast on TV and radio stations around the world, Shuga’s compelling storylines and global success as a vehicle for propagating the HIV/AIDS message targeting a youth population is further underscored in May 2010 when it won a prestigious Gold Award at the World Media Festival in Hamburg, Germany in the Public Relations: Health Category, for its vivid and uncompromising focus on love, emotions and sexual behaviour among Kenyan youths. While in February, it was additionally shortlisted in the Best Drama Category at the One World Media Awards, the United Kingdom’s most prestigious international media awards.
