I Am Not Looking for Noise
The plunging neckline of her gorgeous floral dress accentuates her slender frame. Her gait is a trademark catwalk. Her dark pupils contrast her glowing light skin as her lissom lips calmly form a smile. She is the quintessential confident lady: courageous, convivial and cosmopolitan. She exudes class and quality with simplicity. Eku Edewor is one of Nigeria’s finest actresses, TV hosts, and models with international repute. Vanessa Obioha explores her views on stardom, influence and the social media space
In the crowded room of the Whitespace Creative Agency in Ikoyi, Lagos, Eku Edewor, the BritishNigerian TV host, actress and model perched on a stool, her hands folded on the table. A charming smile lit her oblong face each time various individuals stopped by for courtesies. Her tall, slender frame was difficult to miss in the room bubbling with laughter and chatter. Edewor was among the cast members of the latest production from EbonyLife Films ‘Your Excellency’ who were invited to a media parley. Her first feature in the company’s production was a legal TV drama series ‘Castle and Castle’. In ‘Your Excellency’, she played Eki, a hard news TV presenter in the political satire film. It was a role that was similar to her reallife profession.
In the eyes of the public, the pool of personalities that filled the spacious room fall under one term ‘celebrity’. The term is used to define a state of being celebrated or a famous person. But in a social media-driven age, Edewor interrogates the meaning of that term. Does it have a definite meaning?
Born to a Nigerian mother and a British father, Edewor came into the limelight when she featured in the M-Net produced show 53 Extra. She was one of the hosts of the lifestyle show. Before then, she tried her hands-on modelling, film and TV production and even managed her mother’s restaurant business. Having spent her formative years between Nigeria and England, Edewor’s understanding of the word celebrity is different from the one that is paraded today.
“Who is a celebrity? The term has changed over time. When we were young it was a term used for inaccessible stars. But now everybody is accessible,” said Edewor.
Nowadays, she argued that the word has assumed different meanings due to social media. The arrival of social media birthed new famous people who need not feature in a blockbuster movie, have a record-breaking music album, hail from a wealthy background or belong to the elite class. All they need is a huge following on social media, and voilà they are famous. This has inadvertently given rise to another prominent title, social media influencers. The term is attributed to a social media user who has access to a large audience and can persuade others by virtue of their authenticity and reach.
However, what Edewor found disturbing is that most people equate their social media