Ghanaian singer Adina has suggested that to encourage a lot of musicians to do highlife, music consumers should develop some love for the genre.
Although she ventures into other genres of music, Adina says highlife comes naturally to her because she grew up listening to it.
Adding her voice to the conversation on unlocking ways of preserving highlife, she told Joy FM’s Kwame Dadzie on Showbiz A-Z that while there are various ways of pushing highlife, a lot of musicians will pursue the genre, if music consumers patronise it.
“When people release highlife music, it should be embrace it. A lot of people should help for it to grow because I feel like in Ghana most people go with what is popular so if a popular genre comes out, if someone does a song that is in the popular genre that is what the kids will promote or even the media houses might want to support.
Let’s intentionally promote highlife music. The more we promote it, the more it will be appealing or interesting to the younger ones for them to also want to also have a taste because at the end of the day most of the artistes that are out there just want a hit song so if industry will support the highlife they want to do to be a hit, I think they will be encouraged. But if they feel like highlife is for old people and it won’t be played at parties or the club [they will be discouraged].
So I feel that we need intentional support from the industry which includes the consumers; they lay people in the house. It should be intentional. We should all embrace highlife music,” she said.
Other music stakeholders have suggested various strategies to help promote highlife. Music producer Justice Oteng aka Wei Ye Oteng of Drumline Studios has indicated that music producers have a role to play in helping preserve highlife.
According to him, in as much as most times the musicians come with production ideas in mind, the producers have a crucial role in influencing new styles on consumers.
“Producers, we set the pace. Producers can have an agenda and set the pace because guess what, if I get ten musicians and I send them a certain kind of beat and I know they will love it and within three four months those people are going to drop those songs and we promote them, trust me it becomes a trend. That’s how Azonto was made,” he said
In the meantime, the President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bessa Simons, has also announced plans by the association to motivate highlife musicians.
According to him, MUSIGA will, from next year, award special prizes to winners of the highlife category in the Telecel Ghana Music Awards.
'Yebewu Nti' hitmaker Dada Hafco who as also a panelist of the show suggested that if TGMA rather makes the Highlife Song of the Year category the highest award of the scheme, it will whip up musicians’ interest in doing highlife.
The conversation on reviving and preserving highlife has resurfaced after the announcement that the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) is in the process of making highlife an intangible cultural heritage of Ghana.
It as also been necessitated by Nigerians' tenacity in pushing the Afrobeats movement to get a global acclaim. For many Ghanaian highlife advocates, the genre which originated from Ghana holds the keys to Ghana's resurgence on the international music market.
Latest Stories
-
Reverse osmosis the most reliable way to filter water – Association of Packaged Water Producers
5 mins -
UG SRC Presidential Race: Court ruling has taught me a lot about life – Guru
12 mins -
Peace Council implements measures to ensure peaceful 2024 elections
32 mins -
Staff of banks involved in fraud increases by 46% in 2023; BoG expresses worry
33 mins -
NDC calls for public support for upcoming protest – W/R NDC Secretary
36 mins -
2024/25 GPL: Vision FC secure 2-0 maiden GPL win against Accra Lions
38 mins -
I didn’t pull a gun at DRIP commissioning – Gomoa West MP refutes allegations
39 mins -
Galamsey: Current effort doesn’t match the scale of crisis – Kenneth Ashigbey
50 mins -
I fasted and prayed for days – Ama K. Abebrese recounts how she got ‘Beast of No Nation’ role
1 hour -
Societe Generale Ghana unveils “Home Sweet Loan” mortgage product
1 hour -
Rebuttal to article on ECG’s compliance with the Cash Waterfall Mechanism
1 hour -
Money lost through fraud cases in financial sector increased by 7% in 2023 to hit GH¢88m –BoG
2 hours -
Not all packaged water is wholesome – Water Resource Engineer
2 hours -
NDC demo against EC: About 20k people expected to participate in V/R – NDC Regional Secretary
2 hours -
UBA’s REDTV premieres ‘13 Kinds of Women’ live on YouTube on Sept. 19
2 hours