Matt Parson first raised the question if Madagascar knows how to
leverage the celebrity factor (I would have put the link to his post
but I am composing from my mobile e-mail and it’s not very practical
to insert it)… This question comes back to my mind as the cutie
french-speaking artist “Vitaa” will host a show at Palais de sports
Mahamasina tomorrow afternoon… Well,in the francophone world, she’s
a star and I think she deserves it (ok I’m biased as I have some crush
on italian ladies
So as a memory exercise, let’s just try to list the well-known public
figures who already came to Madagascar (I won’t even try to put the
dates as I’m not good at it, but feel free to add it in the comment
section)
So back to the francophone world first:
- Diam’s, the well-known french rapper did some concerts in Antananarivo
- Patrick Bruel came here to observe the total eclipse back in 2001
(?), then had to do some shows
- Yannick Noah had Antananarivo dance to his “Je suis metis” song
- Jean Jacques Goldman put the Palais de Sports on fire with three concerts
-
Then for the english-speaking world:
- Jimmy Cliff played live “I can see clearly now” at Mahamasina
footbal stadium… He did the concert with the bald Diana King
(remember Bad Boys movie soundtrack?)
- for those who are into clubbing, we had 20fingers (“you gotta lick
it before you kick it”), then the guy singing “return of the mac” (I
apologize but I can’t remember his name)
- for reminiscing old novelties, we recently had Boney M who performed
at Antsonjombe
- Jim Carrey came here for backing up one of his personal projects
- we also received Charlize Teron (or was it the other lady who is
really Charlize Teron-alike- she was Tom Cruise’s wife on the movie
“the firm”?)
On a more institutional side:
- the nobel prize Kofi Annan honored Madagascar by his visit
- we also had a plethora of the world bank group top management (James
Wolfensohn, the executive directors, a lot of VP…)
- I can’t even count the number of presidents who came here
On a “branding” side, we all know the Madagascar, and “Madagascar II:
escape to Africa”… As those cartoons brought so much profit, they
even created a serie “the penguins of Madagascar”, and now we have
video games referring to this name…So yes, we had the celebrity factor on our side…Anyone have idea how
to leverage it better so that this helps promote the Madagascar
destination?