It’s wrong to ‘retire’ artistes –Wutah Kobby

GHANAIAN musician Wutah Kobby is convinced artistes can flourish at any stage of their lives and, therefore, finds it unacceptable to send them on “early retirement”.

Most times, just because a musician has been in the system for a long time, Ghanaians will write them off and put them ‘out of work’, and he thinks it is about time a stop is put to that.

Speaking in an interview with Graphic Showbiz from his USA base on Tuesday, October 15, Wutah Kobby, one-half of the defunct music duo Wutah, passionately spoke about how Ghanaians love to retire musicians early, forgetting the old musicians are full of experience that can be passed down and be beneficial to the new crop of artistes. (More articles: Media space short-lived, don’t overstay your welcome –Vim Lady tells colleagues, Cinema release or Netflix? –Dilema of GH filmmakers)

“Personally, I don't think anybody has the right to make a creative stop working. Artistes should have the freedom to continue creating and performing as long as they want, regardless of age.

“The music profession has no age limit like let’s say sports, where an athlete, boxer or footballer retires due to old age. The story is different with us. We have no restrictions. Music is life; music is with us from birth and will be with us till death.

“Recently, Yvonne Chaka Chaka performed in Ghana and you could tell the audience enjoyed her performance. How long has she been doing music? But she still got what it takes to move an audience. Unfortunately, Ghanaians will write older artistes off as if they don’t have any good thing to offer again,” he lamented.

Wutah Kobby dropped a single, Dollar Dollar, last month and is gearing up to release a new EP. According to him, the yet-to-be-named EP will have five or six songs and it will feature collaborations with Ghanaian artistes.

“I am very hopeful the upcoming project will gain some good attention back home in Ghana. Great new music is coming, it's a spiritual time for me and I want to entreat everyone to make the project worthwhile,” he said.