It was more than a concert for Gemma Ofili. It was an invitation to her soul.
Singer and songwriter Gemma Ofili hosted music lovers, family and friends to a hybrid (virtual and live show) performance of her E.P. titled Through My Skin in July 2021, almost a year after its release.
Shortly after the event which was listed on tix had passed, we got this glowing review from her manager on Twitter.
We knew we had to reach out for an interview. It had been a minute since our last creator spotlight, and so we were very excited when Gemma and her manager, Nathalie, agreed to speak with us for a feature.
It was such a warm and genuine conversation.
P.S.: Gemma’s cute son, Zoran, making a cameo in this interview was the highlight of this interview.
T: I really enjoyed your E.P. My favourite track off of it is ‘Use My Love Song’. What was the inspiration behind the E.P.? I’m assuming love.
G: It’s a bit more complex than that. But after all, is said and done, that’s what it comes down to. Our whole existence revolves around love. One way or another, we’re products of love, and we’re seeking love in everything. But to be precise, it was about giving people a snippet into my soul. It took me a really long time to come to terms with the fact that music was my destiny, but when I came around to it and realized that I have something of value to offer the world, I decided that I would go all out and put my soul into it. So it’s really about love from one form to another. There’s romantic love that I start with on ‘Use My Love Song’; love gone wrong in ‘Oga Di Mma’; love of hope in ‘Tomorrow’; love of God in ‘Love Has Got the Best of Me’, and there’s the love of self in ‘Through My Skin’.
T: What was your favourite part of the event?
G: This one is hard, very hard. (chuckles). The first has to be coming out and seeing people my people show up for me. I had a small event but small or not, people giving you their time and their money is not something to take lightly. And people showed up on a Saturday in Lagos that was an Election Day with a restriction on movement. And people came early. That was my first favourite part. Another favourite part would be when my dad presented me with flowers. It was a proxy for the support of my family and friends, and that was a powerful moment.
T: Why did you decide to have a hybrid event, and how was it like planning that?
G: Let’s get to the origin. (everyone laughs). I was supposed to perform at a wedding in Spain on that date. We had cleared our schedules and applied for our visas and everything, and then I got the news that there were vaccination requirements I couldn’t meet.
(Zoran interrupts here, and we spend the next few minutes getting to know him. He tells us he’s only five, and he loves his vitamins.)
G: I was so heartbroken I couldn’t go, and while talking to Nathalie about it, we decided to convert the date to have a virtual performance. But we also thought about the people who would prefer to attend in person. And that’s how we decide to have a hybrid concert. We had people from America, Saudi Arabia, Europe, Canada attend virtually. It was technically a global event.
T: Well done! Do you think you would organize more virtual or physical events moving forward, or are you sticking to hybrid events?
G: I have a feeling that hybrid events are here to stay.
T: I agree.
G: Many people have discovered the convenience of experiencing the world from the comfort of their homes. People would be happy to go outside, but a lot more people will still want to have that option. I think I will make them (hybrid events) almost an integral part of my brand. I’ll still have private physical performances, but my brand will be associated with hybrid events.
T: How did you find out about tix.africa?
G: (laughs). I have Nathalie to thank. My manager will have to come in and say how she knew about it. She put me on to tix.
T: Nathalie, tell us how you found out about tix.africa.
N: So in the music industry, we talk about things we like and things we’ve used. I heard about tix in December 2019 and asked around to find out who had used it. When it was time to organize this concert, I decided to do a test run to see for myself. tix was easy to use and user-focused. It explained in basic terms how to set up an event page. It made sure the event link was short, and to the point, so one would never forget.
G: That part!
N: And it was good because we were working with Gemma’s name. We changed the letters at the end to know which one linked to the virtual event page and which one linked to the live event page. It was really lovely.
T: That’s the custom URL feature. Is that your favourite feature? Or do you have another feature that you love?
N: Actually, I have another feature that I totally love, and it’s the fact that you made us a mailing list. That was one of the most important features for us. We love it so much. We love it because we discovered the ‘start’ button for virtual events on the tix site rather late. We knew that people would get the virtual meeting link after payments, but we didn’t realize we could start the event right from the tix site. So when we were working, someone accidentally touched that button and ended the virtual stream we had already begun. Guess what? tix came to the rescue with a mailing list. So we knew who bought what types of tickets and who to send the updated virtual link to.
G: Some people didn’t know to check for the virtual link in their email, so they reached out to tix, and then tix reached out to me telling me about that problem and even sent me a screenshot of how to start a virtual event from the tix site. And then, after the event, I was able to send thank you emails to all the virtual audience through tix! We had the emails and were prepared to start the cumbersome work of sending one by one, but then on tix, we could just send to all at once.
N: It was really seamless. As a manager and artiste, tix made it very easy for us, and we will definitely recommend it to other people.
T: Thank you so much!
G: Another thing I love about tix is how easy it was to create tiered tickets. I’m not the most tech-savvy person, but I could do it without any guidance. It was amazing. I wanted free tickets; I could do that. I wanted paid tickets; I could do that. It was so amazing.
N: Omg, there’s something else. You just reminded me, Gemma. tix is also very big on fraud and safety.
G: It felt like a problem at a point, but it’s really a good thing.
N: I’m going to explain what happened. When I set up the account, I did so as a business account. However, it wasn’t the company’s email address I wanted to use. I had a chat with customer support on tix, and I was sent a mail saying that they understood what the problem was and I could use my personal email until I was ready to change to Gemma’s. But I like my artistes to have control over their finances, so I told Gemma to open an account with her email in other for her to be able to see and control the sales dashboard directly.
G: And then, when I opened an account with my name, her account was restricted. Because now we had duplicate accounts, and my account name and email address matched. The level of caution and security was top notch. It was frustrating in the beginning, but we recognized that you care about users and their money.
N: We are proud to be associated with a brand that comes through on security. It’s very impressive.
T: We pride ourselves on keeping your money safe and secure on tix.
G: Another thing about the tiered ticketing feature is putting the perks for each ticket. That was so amazing. Some customers did not know the perks, but it was good for me. I must say this, tiered ticketing on tix made it easy for me to transition from music as my passion to music as my business. It’s a crucial distinction to make. It was like ‘I dey sell market’. This is what I’m selling, this is what you’re paying, and this is what you’re getting. It was very clear.
T: Your guests can actually see the perks of each ticket on checkout.
G: Oh. Some people didn’t know that. They didn’t pick up their stuff.
T: This is good feedback for us to highlight that part, so it’s more visible.
N: To add to what Gemma just said, as her manager, one of my roles is to market her to brands who want to work with her on profitable partnerships. We could keep tabs on each sale and see how much revenue we were making from the sales dashboard. The analytics involved gave me full knowledge about the type of people she should focus on targeting.
G: We had premium tickets, and we expected that it would struggle to sell, but it actually moved very fast. At a point, I got an email from tix with a low stock alert, which blew my mind. I was also given the option to increase the number of tickets available for that tier. Wow. Having the power to see in real-time what was happening and make decisions was so…, I can’t even describe it.
N: tix put a lot of thought into this, and we’re so happy we got to use it. Now, Gemma can run a show with fewer worries, and she’s in charge of her finances and how much she makes from performances. And for us as a music consultancy, we can offer ticketing as part of our services in a way that the artiste can see exactly how much they’re making. We pride ourselves in working with artistes who are in charge of their lives.
T: Are there any features you’ll like to see on tix? Or any improvements you’ll want to see?
G: Considering that sometimes, it’s more than one person organizing an event and needs the sales information, is it possible to have more than one person register and have access to an account and the sales dashboard? In my case, my manager trusts me to practise full disclosure, but sometimes people can be funny.
T: We’ll see how we can make that possible.
G: Also, most of my audience will go to my website when it’s live to get information about my performance and showtimes. So I’ll like to have tix hosted on my website to collect payments.
T: So, a website plugin.
G: Exactly. I’ll be very happy to use something like that once it’s ready.
T: When are we getting the next Gemma Ofili concert?
G: Insha Allah, this December. By that time, I’ll have more material out.
T: We can’t wait! Thank you so much for speaking to me, Gemma and Nathalie.
Listen to Gemma’s EP ‘Through My Skin’ here.
