One with the Boyz

#71: Yes, I'm a BoyzIIMen Fan

It was a problem first and foremost of wrong understanding of the target market. Then of wrong product mix. Then of lousy execution. Then of low awareness.

My brother just got home from the concert of BoyzIIMen and felt the need to share with me his disappointment over the way the events company, "Spooky Entertainment" handled the whole project.(#1. Who the heck calls their company, "Spooky?")

I am a die-hard BoyzIIMen fan and while admittedly, they're no longer at the peak of their careers, I am still a devoted follower of their song releases and a major believer in their talent. No other group of black Americans have been able to produce such effortless harmony and seamless interpretation of old and new songs after them. None. I will continue to refuse to refer to them as a boy band lest they be relegated to the level of lip-synching pretty boys who are not necessarily in this for the love of music but for the quick buck and flashbulbs; and will always be affected whenever there's news that they might break up or altogether abandon the music scene... or any negative news for that matter.

For two consecutive years, I watched their Valentine concerts and hoped that by singing loudly the lyrics that I knew by heart, I could somehow let them know that I'm supporting them all the way. Last year, when people started to stand up and leave even before their last song was over, I felt indignation rising up inside me. Of course it was 12:30am and some of the people in the audience haven't even had their Valentine dinners but come on, leaving in droves before the end of the act will always be rude, insulting and downright heartless.

This year, I didn't even know they were coming. The events company did an extremely poor job of publicizing the event. I found out afterwards that there was a solitary billboard with an awful awful layout. And that was already the breadth and depth of the organizer's "advertising."

The opening act was pathetic. You're talking about Starstruck's Yasmin forgetting her cue to come in and then forgetting a full verse of her song. Rainier? Why throw someone who has absolutely no talent to get the crowd in the mood for such a talented bunch??? It's like feeding someone poison as appetizer so you could make them enjoy their entrees better.

The venue was sad. The stage was borrowed from a cheesy noontime show and the backdrop was reminiscent of your good old barrio fiesta singing contest. The set designer who was assigned to do it either did it while he was on drugs, or was on drugs so he ended up asking some artistically-challenged person to do it for him.

Only 1/3 of the seats were occupied. It pained my brother to see the spotlight falling on empty chairs. He's a die-hard fan too and all the time, he was thinking of what levels of disappointment could possibly be going through BoyzIIMen's minds.

The crowd, however, was made up of true-blue BoyzIIMen followers. Whatever was lacking in terms of the implementation & execution of those spooky events organizers, the fans made up for in the intensity of their participation. They sang loudly, waved their hands wildly and poured their hearts out to convey to the group what they wouldn't know otherwise given the gray turnout of events:

"We love you guys! Keep the music playing."