Musicians who mime are cheap - Nacee

He may touch many raw nerves but popular gospel musician and sound engineer Nacee could not help but declare that Ghanaian artistes who mime at shows are cheap and cheats.

He sees this as short-changing patrons who have doled out money to watch an artiste perform.

Nacee, who is admired by many for his entertaining stage performances, told Showbiz last week that any artiste who mounts the stage to mime would be better off sleeping at home for a deejay to play his music for patrons to sing and dance along to it.

 “I see it as cheating when artistes mime to pre-recorded tracks for their fans who have paid to watch them perform. It certainly does not make sense that your fans and patrons have your CDs at home and they come out to watch you only for you to mime the same song or songs. It is just not fair to your audience. You are not doing them any good,” he said.

According to the Fire Burn You singer, any artiste who lip-sync is just lazy and wants a cheaper way out because live band performance entails a lot.

“With live band, one has to rehearse all the time with the band which is a lot of work thus most musicians choose the easier way. Miming is very easy,” he added.

Nacee, who got 10 nominations, the highest, at this year’s Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA), said musicians who perform live are 100 percent better than those who mime.

“This is because any artiste who performs live is able to engage his fans. He or she is very confident on stage and is always ready for action,” said Nacee who has plans to release a new album soon.

Pointing out some good live performers, the Yewo Nyame A Yewo Adze singer said he admires Joe Mettle, Ohemaa Mercy, Sonnie Badu, Mabel Okyere, Jeshurun, Coda and Uncle Ato.

Away from performing live, Nacee, real name, Nana Sei, who has worked with almost all the popular gospel musicians in Ghana, said he is hopeful of grabbing more than three awards at the VGMA scheduled for April 8 at the Accra International Conference Centre.