Ghana’s music identity should be beyond any genre- Bada

Afro-fusion musician, Bada has weighed in on the ongoing debate about Ghana’s music identity, emphasising the need to embrace the country’s diversity in genres rather than relying on a singular sound to represent its culture.

According to him, the call for Ghana to promote Highlife shouldn’t be encouraged but rather, attention should be given to other music genres such as Afrobeats, Dancehall, Reggae that are equally putting Ghana in the spotlight globally.

“I think there’s a school of thought that Ghana needs one genre of music to identify us. I don’t believe in that at all.

“Even if I used to think we needed that one sound or genre to push the Ghanaian identity, now I don’t. It’s like finding one person to represent Ghana. It’s impossible. We need everyone to represent,” he said. (Read Doing Highlife limits artiste's global reach –Bada)

He stressed on the need to give artistes creative liberty, enabling them to tap into diverse music influences and styles, rather than confining them to one music style.

“What is that one American sound? They don’t have one—they’ve got Hip-Hop, R&B, Pop, Soul, and more. So if Ghana has Highlife, Afrobeats, and Hiplife, that’s what we should proudly showcase. Forcing someone to do Highlife when their inspiration has never been Highlife is counterproductive,” he explained.

In December last year, Bada sparked an interesting debate in the music industry, when he mentioned that Highlife music could limit an artiste's global reach, which would be a big loss to Ghana’s music industry.

For Bada, real name is Emmanuel Amegba, the advocacy by some musicians to make Highlife the standard of music in Ghana should not be encouraged because music has become globally competitive.

He noted the times and seasons had changed, with music listeners yearning for a mixture of local and foreign sounds.

So projecting Highlife in an era when music had become globally competitive was a big loss to Ghana’s music industry.