“cr azy white men” 253touch with their followers with a level of regularity and intimacy which
no other social media is able to provide. Several tweets per day create an
“ambient awareness” (Reichelt 2007) of their activities among their fol-
lowers, keeping the musicians present in their fans’ lives—for example, “I
will be live on itv in 15mins! itv Nigeria not UK lol” (W hite Nigerian on
Twitter, January 27, 2014). Often, tweets are formulated as teasers meant to
arouse their readers’ curiosity. Links provided in such tweets redirect to
t he music ia n’s pages on ot her i nter net plat for ms, such a s I nstag ra m, Face-
book, or YouTube, where images, music, videos, and other information
are disclosed: “Watch the history of Mzungu Kichaa through 34 videos
on Youtube. W hich is your favourite? and why” (on Twitter, January 16,
2014)? Encouraging the active participation of their followers, the musi-
cians often ask for their fans’ opinions on a particular project. This keeps
their followers involved and the feedback they receive may help the musi-
cians with their future projects.
Facebook and Twitter are also important tools for mobilizing “friends”
and “followers” to perform certain tasks, such as donating money or cast-
ing a vote in favor of the musician. On January 9, 2014, Mzungu Kichaa
asked his followers for help with the release of his epRelax. His Twitter
post read as follows: “We need your support! Please share our crowd-
funding project to raise funds for new music with Mzungu Kichaa.” The
message provided a link to a project called Connecting Cultures through
Music, which he had created on Boomerang, a Danish crowd-funding site,
where he posted the projected release date of his ep. EES is particularly
good at mobilizing his fans to cast votes for him in awards venues orga-
nized by tv channels, such as the MTV Africa Awards or the Channel
O Music Video Awards. Following his nominations in 2009 and 2012,
respectively, EES campaigned heavily on his diverse websites and social
media pages. Since he asked both his European and his African followers
for support, his African “Best Kwaito” award of 2012 was at least partially
produced by European votes, a somewhat paradoxical effect of EES’s cos-
mopolitan career. On the other hand, he sought to secure his Namib-
ian fans’ votes during his participation in the talent show Millionärswahl
(Millionaire’s poll) on the German television channel sat1. Prior to and
even during the final show, which was live-streamed on the internet on
January 25, 2014, EES’s Twitter account and Facebook page were literally