The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Darling Records, Mimi Andani Michaels, has responded to concerns about a clause in her contract which bars female signees of her label from getting pregnant.
The clause states: “the artist understands that the nature of the business and how time consuming and the cash investment that will be made in his/her career, base on this the artist understand and accept not to be pregnant for the first 30 months of this agreement (this is applicable to only female artist under the company, should this be a major challenge artist should NOT go on to sign this agreement.”
This issue, which came up in her contract with NaaNa Blu, has provoked discussions about human rights and labour laws; and the propriety or otherwise of barring one from having children in the course of one’s career.
Speaking to Kwame Dadzie on Citi FM’s Celebrity Radar, however, Mimi indicated that NaaNa was not forced to sign the contract.
“It’s everywhere in the world actually. Once you have a baby, it distracts a lot of things. And for us, we didn’t even see it as she going to have a baby now because when we signed her, she was very young and at the university,” she said.
Mimi said she did not want to risk ruining her investment.
“Imagine if you get pregnant and our video is stuck somewhere. They are looking for you to perform and you can’t perform,” she noted.
“We can agree and disagree but we also did not put a gun to the artiste (NaaNa Blu) yo sign so your human right ends when mine starts. When the contract was given to her, she could have said no, but she was laughing,” Mimi further stated.
She added that a lot of women in the music industry lost their pregnancies because they engaged in stage performances and other strenuous activities while pregnant.
Background
Quophimens Musiq artiste, NaaNa Blu, noted for her cover of Kofi Kinaata’s ‘Things Fall Apart’, is reported to have an unexpired contract with Darling Records, a music and artiste management company owned by Mimi Andani of Big Brother Africa fame.
According to Mimi, she signed a 10-year contract with NaaNa Blu (real name Abigail Mensah) in 2016 but NaaNa left the label to sign another deal with Quophimens Music.
They are therefore requesting NaaNa Blu (formerly Esi Cutie) to pay them an amount of GHS 500,000 as compensation for breaching her contract or risk being taken to court.
However, sources say that NaaNa Blu was released from the company upon mutual agreement.
According to Darling Record label, they were waiting for NaaNa Blu to complete her university education before outdooring her to the music industry.
NaaNa Blu who is currently promoting her latest single ‘No Pressure’ has other songs such as ‘Sugar Cane’, ‘Blu Afehyipa’ and ‘Save Us.’
–
By: ghanaweekend.com
