Who is a Celebrity?

Time and time again I have asked this question; who is a celebrity? I posed this same question to couple of people and well as expected I was given a variety of definitions. Nonetheless, the most interesting response was “a celebrity is a person who is in the limelight.” This particular response got me thinking; when we say one is in the limelight do we mean the people who for various reasons have adorned the front pages of newspapers?

What about the faces we see on TV, and the voices on radio? A friend told me “Massa, u see say Ataa Aryi (the popular armed robber in Ghana) be celebrity now?” if I should go by the definition above, I think Ataa Aryi has attained that status. Anyway, let's take a look at what the dictionary says about who a celebrity is. The oxford dictionary defines a celebrity as “a famous person or the state of being well known.”

Now back to my question; who is a celebrity? Is it the armed robber who for over 6 months festooned the front pages of all the newspapers? Or the rich man who had the biggest wedding which attracted massive media attention? Is it the hot new artist with chart topping album and smash hit single or the new actor or actress on the movie scene? Oops, almost escaped me; what about the popular man of God who performs unimaginable miracles and is tipped to be God's favorite? The fetish priest? The TV/radio personality? Ok the big spenders/club owners? Hmm… the controversial journalists? Hey! What about the sports stars?

What are the criteria for being a celebrity? There are various factors that come into account when defining or determining who is a celebrity. Of course we have a different pop culture from the west and it will be absurd on my part to employ the western “evaluation sheet” here. Thus, who a celebrity is boils down to how these individuals are perceived by the general public, and oh don't forget to throw in the attention magnet scale too. In your own opinion, who do you think is a celebrity?

By: ghanacelebritie