DADDY LUMBA, ABRANTIE TO TOUR GHANA

Two successful Ghana highlife musicians, Daddy Lumba and Abrantie Amakye Dede who have carved a niche for themselves in the Ghanaian music scene have announced their plans to embark on a nationwide tour to entertain their fans and also raise funds to assist the needy in society.

The tour dubbed “Unity Tour” which is scheduled to begin from February 2014 has been put together by the two top musicians with a vision of reuniting the people of Ghana and also educating them to desist from acts that seek to undermine the progress of the society and the country as a whole.

Daddy Lumba and Abrantie Amakye Dede will perform in all the 10 regional capitals alongside some selected Ghanaian hiplife and highlife musicians.

The two musicians at a meeting reaffirmed their commitment to education with a promise to assist some educational institutions in the country with musical instruments among others to help students who want to study Music.

A source close to the musicians disclosed that next year they would assist five schools, two in Accra and three in the Ashanti Region with musical instruments and books to help students studying Music.

ACTOR OMAR SHERIFF TO HELP REDUCE DIVORCE RATE

Actor, Omar Sheriff Captan says celebrity marriages are seen to fall apart more often just because celebrities are in the limelight. He believes marriages including non-celebrity marriages are always falling apart. People don’t see those ones because they are not in the public spotlight.

Omar Sheriff whose marriage has also fallen apart shied away from discussing it when he appeared on Kumasi based KFM to promote his upcoming marriage TV reality show called “ten to bee”.

He told his host; Kwame Scientific the winners of the reality show will receive a cash price of GHC10,000.00, a car and a fully sponsored wedding.

Auditions for Accra and Kumasi have already been done for the reality show which will be telecast on Viasat 1.

The actor who is also the Creative Director for the show explains the show is to help ten couples looking to get married achieve a successful marriage. Participants will live in a house where they do stuff together, undertake special tasks including debates, and undergo counseling and teachings in the rudiments of marital life.

He is worried the divorce rate in the country is so high and hopes the programme will help curb the growing trend.

Participants should be dating for at least three months to qualify for the show which is expected to become a TV success story. This is the first time such a show is happening in Ghana.

I PAID MUSICIANS TWICE EVERY YEAR - ALHAJI SIDIKU BUARI

The former President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Alhaji Sidiku Buari has disclosed that during his administration as the chairman of the Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA) for eight years he worked tirelessly to improve the living condition of the Ghanaian musicians.

The former MUSIGA president who was not happy with the current development in the music industry further disclosed that during his administration his board members were not being paid but received sitting allowance after monthly board meetings.

Speaking in an interview on Adom FM last Saturday, the former MUSIGA president who threw more light on some of his contributions to the creative arts industry told Kojo Preko, the host the Entertainment Review programme on Adom FM that through his efforts COSGA was able to put up its own well furnished office building which is now being used as the national office for the collective society.

“It was during my administration that intellectual property owners were protected. I paid musicians their royalties twice every year.”

Sidiku Buari who was also the former vice president of the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) said he is very happy that the government is investing in the creative arts industry, adding that during his eight years as MUSIGA president he suffered a lot because there were no funds and so he ran the administration with his own resources. He renovated the old passport office which was given to MUSIGA by the government, with his money.

Alhaji Sidiku Buari intimated that during his administration the union appealed to government to waive duty on musical instruments to enable musicians to acquire their own sets of instruments for their live musical performances.

He also succeeded in championing the passage of the Copyright Law C690 to protect the interest of all the copyright music and other stakeholders as well as create jobs for the musicians.

With over 52 awards to his credit, Sidiku in 2004 was appointed at the vice president of the International Federation of Musicians (FIM) and served with distinction until the end of his term in 2008.

The former FIM vice president told Adom FM that he is one of the pioneers of movie production in Ghana with his first production, ‘Ayalolo’ showed commercially in all the cinema houses throughout the country.

He noted that based on his outstanding performance in movie production, some years ago Douche Welles of Germany sponsored him to travel to most of the African countries to share his experience in movie production with his colleagues.

He revealed that before he became a musician and movie producer, he was a sportsman who won a silver medal for Ghana in the 400-metre race in All African Games in Dakar, Senegal in 1963.

According to him, in the same year he won gold and silver medals in the 400 metres and 4×400 metres relay for Ghana in West African games in Ibadan, Nigeria, adding “IN 1965 I won a bronze medal for Ghana in All African Games held in Congo Brazzaville.

GFA REACTS TO BECCA’S ACCUSATION; WE HAD NO SUCH ARRANGEMENTS

In the ensuing controversy surrounding Afro pop singer, Becca’s prevention from giving a live rendition of the national anthem at the Ghana-Zambia world cup qualifying game in Kumasi, the Ghana Football Association has indicated that they were not aware of any such arrangement.

A couple of days ago, it was made public that Becca was contacted to perform the National Anthem at the Ghana-Zambia game in Kumasi but at the 11th hour, the performance was cancelled.

According to her, the only reason she got was that authorities have given a directive to stop her from performing since she is a woman and that could spell doom for the Stars.

However, in an interview with the Graphic Showbiz, a spokesperson for the Ghana Football Association (GFA) who was part of the planning for the Ghana-Zambia match indicated that it never cropped up in any of their pre-match meetings that Becca was to sing the national anthem.

“What we knew all along was that the Ghana national anthem would be played over the stadium public address system. If some arrangements had been made is some quarters for Becca to sing live, the GFA was definitely not aware of that,” the spokesperson said.

We are still not sure who is speaking the truth in this issue but we will keep you posted on any development from the two camps.