Kenyan pop girl group Band BeCa says it has gone through significant changes after featuring in the just concluded staged reality show ‘Wife Material’.
A brainchild of comedian Eric Omondi, ‘Wife Material’ tricked viewers into believing that Band BeCa member Carol Kamweru got married to the funnyman.
Speaking in an interview on Radio Jambo, Band BeCa confirmed that Wife Material was a publicity stunt that served its purpose; to promote their brand and their forthcoming album.
“The real reason we went to the show was to promote our upcoming album which is called Beca Fever, which will be released in February,” said Carol.
Becky Sangolo added: “Also we were bored, I mean people were locked up in quarantine and we figured why not? We got free entertainment for two months.”
They revealed that Wife Material helped double their fanbase on social media pages.
“Our Instagram page had around 45,000 followers but after the show we grew to over 87,000 followers. Surprisingly, it is not only our Instagram that has grown, even our YouTube channel. People are now aware that we sing and this made us realize that not many people knew Band BeCa as a musical group. We honestly feel that if we didn’t get into this show and put the effort that we did, people wouldn’t know we sing,” the ‘Brathe’ hitmakers told Massawe Japanni.
The sassy songbirds also opened up about the backlash and body shaming they were subjected to during the show.
“The only time we got backlash was when we kissed. Some people were saying it was disgusting, which makes me wonder how they do it because I didn’t think it was disgusting all. I think they were just jealous because most of the people trolling us and body shaming us were girls but it is what it is,” said Carol.
She also revealed that her family was supportive of her participation in the show.
“My mother was okay. Actually she was like ‘now you should really consider doing this’ (settling down). I figure you are aware that this whole thing was staged and choreographed and when we were getting into this we spoke to them and told them this is what we are going to do and the whole plan. They are very supportive. However, when some of our family members called to inquire about the show, we had to play along and say it was real because it wouldn’t make sense if we told them it was staged and fighting on this other side to convince people it was real. But generally, everyone was supportive,” said Carol.
