Bessa, Kojo Antwi and Ambolley advise GH one-time hitmakers

THEY hit the music scene with a big bang thrilling music lovers with songs that are greeted with ‘thunderous’ applause.

However, their subsequent releases fail woefully to match their previous hit; resulting in people describing these once upon a time promising artistes as one-time-hitmakers.

Looking for some answers, Graphic Showbiz spoke to some veteran musicians who have been and are still making good music.

Afro-Fusion musician, Kojo Antwi said it was about time young musicians did albums if they wanted to stay in the music business for a long time.

Kojo Antwi

“I am not saying singles are not good but albums are always the best. Let’s say if a musician has a hit single, how many times can he or she perform that single at a particular time?

"There is no way you can perform that hit single for more than 30 minutes.

“During our time, we were doing albums and if only one song is even a hit on the album, you have the opportunity to perform almost all the songs but hardly would you find the young ones doing albums in recent times,” he said.

He explained that the young musicians need to do authentic music that would last for a long time. “Everything starts from the grassroots.

"If you do authentic music, Ghanaians will embrace it and that is what I urge the young ones to do,” he said.

On his part, Bessa Simon said: “Music is a journey we take, we need to learn and not just do it because others are doing it.

"Stonebwoy started long ago and has so many hit songs. You need to have enough fuel in your tank and keep learning.

“Some of them have no idea about music, they heard someone’s hit song and they think they can do the same but it doesn’t work that way; there is so much they have to learn before venturing into music.

“A good management team will also push you in the right direction so that is another thing the young ones should look at, most of them don’t have proper handlers and that goes a long way to affect them.

“In our time, we learnt a lot so whatever we do till date is authentic and that is the reason why most of us have evergreen songs, songs which have been around for decades yet are still enjoyed by both the young and the old.

Gyedu Blay Ambolley also added his voice, saying: “It is all about education and information; you need to be taught the music, the melodic side of it and all the nitty-gritty of it. It draws you to scrutinise the music.

Gyedu Blay Ambolley

“The young ones are just copying music from other countries, they need to learn the music. They depend on computers and do cut and paste.

"Most artificial things don’t last. They need to go to more experienced artistes to learn from them so they can come out with authentic music,” he stated.

Also giving his thoughts on the issue, Sadiq Abdulai Abu, Chief Executive Officer of 3Music Awards and talent manager said how a musician breaks through determines how they are accepted.

“If a musicians comes in a comic way, the public kind of accept you the way you came in so if you are try to do serious music, it won’t work.

"Such musicians come in as sensations and are easily forgotten so the moment such musicians try to do serious music, the public cannot relate to them”

“More so, most of these musicians are not able to track down how their song became popular at a certain point in time and because they are not able to do so, they are not able to come back again with another banger and eventually fade off.

“But all is not lost as Shatta Wale has been able to rise above all these challenges and the young ones can learn some from him” he told Graphic Showbiz.