Of Grammys, Highlife music and matters arising…

Tuesday, June 13, could probably pass for a holiday for advocates and promoters of Highlife music following the announcement of the genre as part of relevant African music styles for the Best African Music Performance category at this year's Grammy Awards.

The Best African Music Performance category is one of the three new slots included in the 2024 edition of the well-respected awards scheme. The other two are Best Alternative Jazz Album and Best Pop Dance Recording.

“Best African Music Performance’ category as “a track and singles category that recognises recordings that utilise unique local expressions from across the African continent.

 Highlighting regional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic musical traditions, the category includes but is not limited to the Afrobeat, Afro-fusion, Afro Pop, Alte, Amapiano, Bongo Flava, Genge, Kizomba, Chimurenga, High Life, Fuji, Kwassa, Ndombolo, Mapouka, Ghanaian Drill, Afro-House, South African Hip-Hop, and Ethio Jazz genres,” the category definition states.

While developing conversations about the Grammys in Ghana seem to have been limited to Highlife, Ghana should be very proud having another genre affiliated to the country, Ghanaian Drill, as part of the list.

Perhaps, the global recognition and importance of the Grammys, regarded by many as the most prestigious and significant awards in the music industry worldwide, influenced popular comments by industry folks for the recognition of Highlife music by the Grammys for a long time. 

For such proponents, the acknowledgement of Highlife which is touted by its promoters as the only music genre that gives identity to Ghanaian music and cultural heritage by Grammys gives credence to what they have been championing over the years.

The latest news has once again revived intense conversations about the potentials of Highlife getting Ghana the much needed international reputation just as the likes of Reggae and HipHop have done for Jamaica and America respectively.

Advocacy

Veteran Highlife musician, Gyedu Blay Ambolley, has been quite forceful pressing on with Highlife advocacy.
On various platforms, the respected musician has been relentless condemning Charterhouse in what he believes are efforts by some “gatekeepers” to undermine the value of Highlife.

Many times, he has lamented about how the new crop of artistes have thought to label Highlife as ‘colo’ (outmoded) and venturing into music styles that he believes were ‘alien’ to the Ghanaian music space.

In a recent interview with Graphic Showbiz, he heavily criticised Charterhouse, organisers of Ghana’s biggest music award scheme, Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMAs) for continuously awarding artistes who were doing other music styles to the detriment of Highlife.

He said the biggest award scheme in Ghana has been a contributory factor to the limping state of Highlife music by giving  a false impression of music representation in Ghana by awarding topmost awards to artistes pursuing other music genres.

For Ambolley and his ilk, Highlife is the only magic wand to get Ghana global attention on the music front including getting Ghana its first Grammy win and it appears that dream may not be far from reach with Grammy’s latest credit.

Music identity

But even before the Grammy announcement, there had been a simmering debate for Ghana to brand itself with an identifiable music genre. Once again, the old age argument of Highlife being the preferred choice had been championed by the music style’s artistes including Dada Hafco and Abiana.

Some relevant industry folks such as sound engineer/music producer, Appiah Dankwah widely known as Appietus also shares same view.

In a recent interview with Showbiz University podcast with King Kweku Mensah, Appietus pointed out that one of Ghana’s main struggles lies with it consistently experimenting with new genres instead of sticking to one.

According to Abiana, no other genre apart from Highlife music has pushed Ghana’s international image like Highlife.

“If you look at the past, Highlife has done a lot for Ghana, looking at Osibisa and recently, Rocky Dawuni’s The Voice of Bunbon, which was nominated in the Global Music category at the Grammy Awards. This shows that anytime Ghana gains global mention for music, Highlife is there but we are not branding it.”

“We need to go back to it and then as artistes, intentionally call ourselves Highlife musicians so that the brand will be globally recognised,” she told Daily Graphic in an interview on Tuesday, June 13.

For Professor Yaw Owusu Frempong of Highlife Institute, Grammys recognition of Highlife will embolden steps by the institute and other relevant stakeholders for the inclusion of the genre as UNESCO’s intangible cultural heritage.

Intangible cultural heritage according to Owusu-Ansah’s article published in the Daily Graphic on Saturday, May 21, 2022 titled, UNESCO’s Intangible Cultural Heritage: Making A Case for Highlife’s Inclusion are “the practices, representations, expressions, knowledge, skills – as well as the instruments, objects, artefacts and cultural spaces associated therewith - that communities, groups, in some cases, individuals recognise as part of their cultural heritage”.

‘Threats’

While Ghanaians are on cloud nine and happy that Highlife is making a mark, it is worth mentioning that though Ghana is largely recognised as originator of Highlife, there are African counties including our own ‘cousins’ Nigerians who are also into Highlife.

Already, the likes of artiste manager, Nana Asiamah Hanson popularly known as Bullgod has drawn attention to the fact that Nigerians are likely to take advantage of this and even beat Ghana to it.

“The ‘Highlife Category’ that has been introduced by the Grammys will be won more by Nigerians than Ghanaians — if…” he posted on Facebook on Wednesday, June 14.
Obviously, this is not a time for industry players to continue to chart different courses. It is very important to stay united for the Highlife agenda now more than any time.

Who knows? Ghana could earn its first Grammy award this year or the nearest future. We have the “men and women”.

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