In a recent event hosted by Serengeti Limited, Diamond Platnumz shed light on his prolonged absence from shows in Tanzania and his collaboration strategies. Addressing questions from Sarafina Jerry of Ricky Media, Diamond explained his relationship with Davido and the dynamics of their collaboration, the speculation of story that Davido made him and Tanzanian music famous. He answered;
"Davido, he's like family to me. In one way or another, if we don't acknowledge, let's respect his contribution. Everyone contributes in someone's life. I did a song with him, the 'Number One Remix,' and honestly, it made a significant contribution. But when it comes to building egos, we fail to recognize that he, in one way or another, had a contribution, although it takes effort, it takes self-organization because not every song he made was well-received. But his involvement has also helped, so we must be grateful."
Diamond revealed that he refrained from performing in Nigeria due to certain challenges and attitudes prevalent in the Nigerian music industry.
"You know, recently I haven't done shows in Nigeria for what reason? Because Nigerians have a tendency to acknowledge your strength but yet they want to underestimate you in some way, that's there. So when shows were coming, I would say, 'I don't want it because I want this amount, if you don't want it, I won't come,' just like that, short and clear. If you want to fly me by jet, go ahead, if not, I won't come. In the meantime, when you saw me traveling, I had to travel by jet. I deserve that. If you feel you don't want to fly me by jet, I won't come. I'll eat, I can't miss out on the food, I'll eat at Mama Dangote's"
Diamond also revealed his strategic approach to global success, highlighting the challenges faced by East African artists in breaking into the international market. He emphasized the need for effort, planning, and collaboration to achieve significant milestones.
When I started out, I was just in Tandale, then from Tandale, I expanded to Tanzania. From Tanzania, I said I want the whole East Africa, and I made a strategy for the entire East Africa. Unfortunately, for Tanzanian artists, when we release songs and they become hits in East Africa and Central Africa, going to the whole of Africa requires effort.
So, it means we decide devise a strategy to hit Africa first, where for our Tanzanian music reaching the entire Africa isn't easy; mostly it stops at Central Africa. Therefore, me, my team, and Tanzanians, supporting each other we ensured that when I go to Ethiopia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, or any African country, if I land there it must be just like I am in Tanzania, I fill up stadiums. The second mission was to go from Africa to the world; to go from Africa to the world there must be a strategy. Now, our counterparts (west africans) preceded us because their songs were hitting all of Africa, so their task was to go from Africa to the world. While we were on missions to go to Africa, our counterparts were on missions to go worldwide. The fruits you see now were being cultivated while we were producing fruits to go to Africa. That's why I will now fill stadiums in Africa, while they are filling stadiums worldwide. Starting from last year to this year, we were creating a path to go worldwide.
Reflecting on his journey from local to international recognition, Diamond shared personal anecdotes and insights into the music industry. He discussed the challenges of navigating social media trends and the importance of staying true to one's roots while aiming for global recognition.
If someone rushes you, look at your colleague, look at your colleague; I tell them, 'You go and do it; you're also Tanzanian; go and do it.
If you look at last year, we released songs, and every song we released had a strategy. The strategy for the song 'Shu!' was an international strategy. When you look at the clips of the song 'Shu!', even recently, I saw Europeans and people from various countries dancing it, but when I released 'Shu!', some people didn't understand it. People want songs with Tanzanian (Swahili) lyrics singing about in-laws, exes, insulting... also mocking people ; Europeans don't understand your language. You must create vibes that people will understand or languages that people will understand. A song like 'Shu!' is 8 months old now on Spotify, it's approaching almost 9 million listeners, i think. When we started, we focused on creating dancing moves trends only. People were asking, 'What dancing moves are these? What song is this?' But those were strategies. Because while w were fighting for Africa, our counterparts (west Africans)were fighting for the world. We've been fighting for the world since the end of the last year and this year. Often, when you do such things, people don't understand; you find various comments. This one says this, the other one saying that. And because people are also passionate; you can't blame them when they ask. But they must understand that the position Westerners (west africans) have and that of East Africans are totally different. Firstly, when you see a show happening there (America, Europe), 70-80% of those entering are West Africans, Tanzanians don't go in. Is your father there? If we ask each other if your uncle is in America will he come to my show, he wont! your Grandma isn't there, your Auntie isn't there. So you have to use other nations (Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa, Uganda, etc.) to come to the show, first their relatives are living there. They themselves (Nigerians) are more than 50% sure of filling up the O2 Arena themselves alone, now we, others from African countries, who like the show, are entering to fill up the remaining. So we must realize we have a very big task because our East African people aren't many in those foreign countries.
In addition to addressing his past achievements, Diamond outlined his future plans for expanding his influence globally. He announced upcoming shows and projects, signaling his continued commitment to elevating Tanzanian and East African music on the international stage.
You must plan strategies, On May 24th of this year, we're having a show at the Arena in DC, for 20,000 people. By last year, we had made plans and also plans for this year. After making plans, we said we wouldn't do childish shows outside of Africa, outside of African countries and globally. But if you say you're not doing it without a strategy, it doesn't help, do you understand me? So we've made the right strategies, which we'll ensure they go well this year until December. And now, looking at the trend, when the West (west africans) used to dominate music, it was until you sing in English to break through, but now if you follow closely, the songs that are hitting globally are from South Africa. You'll see Mnike, you'll see Tshwalaba, you'll see Tyla-Water. Our counterparts in the West are struggling a bit now. So when you look at it, we Tanzanians have a big and good opportunity to make music that goes global because if you want to go global, you have to look, and the world wants money. Don't think you just want to go global without money, no, you must prepare a strategy, you need money, you need to build a network. We built a network, we prepared some money, we prepared hit songs, so this year we're releasing them. Now we want great support from the people.
The event concluded with Diamond expressing gratitude to his fans and supporters, emphasizing the importance of their continued support in his journey to global success. As he continues to make strides in the music industry, Diamond remains focused on representing Tanzania and East Africa on the global stage with pride and determination.