Let’s support our own

Ghana and Nigeria’s rivalry exists in almost every area but it is very strong when it comes to football and music.

There is no doubt that for years, the Nigerians have seemingly had the upper hand when it comes to music and they have not been shy pushing it in our faces.

In a lot of ways, Ghanaians have fuelled this perception with the constant playing of Nigerian music on radio and TV, featuring Nigerian acts at our events and even fawning over them more than we do our own musicians.

Admittedly, there was a period when our artistes seemed to be stuck in a rut and everybody was doing basically the same style and using the same sound which people grew tired of. This made the Nigerians attractive as they became more innovative.

Now, however, there is so much variety in the sound and style and our artistes are making great music again. Sarkodie, Shatta Wale, Stonebwoy, MzVee, Joe Mettle, Sonnie Badu and others have put the industry back on top.

In fact, Mr Eazi, a Nigerian, whose career blossomed in Ghana, was right when he said Nigerian musicians are now being influenced by Ghanaian sound. The massive improvement in the industry is evidenced by the frequent collaborations between acts of both countries, something which rarely happened years ago.

However, in something reminiscent of the Biblical verse that a Prophet is not recognised in his hometown, we still seem to favour these Nigerian artistes more than we do our own. There is still more Nigerian content on radio but on the other side, the opposite is the case. Many entertainment critics who have travelled to Nigeria attest that Ghanaian content does not feature much on radio or television so why are we doing the opposite?

Ghanaian music is enjoying its best times now with a lot of young artistes who are gathering steam to take over from the older ones. Mention can be made of Kofi Kinaata, Kuami Eugene, Kurl Songx, Kidi and others who do not rely on beats alone but have great vocals too and Showbiz believes it is time our DJs and presenters sat up and paid attention.

Let us ‘big up’ our artistes just as we do for foreigners so they can continue to soar and make us proud on the international stage.

Showbiz believes the future is bright for our music and we need all hands on deck to ensure that we don’t fail.