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.

4×4 FIGHTS GUINNESS OVER AKON & WIZKID

The decision of Guinness Ghana to include two foreign musicians in the upcoming ‘Big Eruption Concert’ has got award-winning music trio, 4×4, raging with anger and bitter complaints.

Coded, one of the 4×4 trio, went ballistic on TV3’s New Day over Guinness’ decision to include Senegalise singer Akon of Konvict Music fame, American Rapper Big Sean and Nigerian rap don, Wizkid in the list of performers for the show scheduled for Saturday November 23 at the Accra Sports Stadium.

According to him, when Guinness organized the same concert in Nigeria, only Nigerian artistes were contracted to rock the show but “the same company comes down to Ghana organizing a big show like this and then you tell us that let’s all converge at the stadium and then you add Wizkid, Samini and Shatta Wale on it.”

The status quo has been that event organisers are at complete liberty to exercise their discretion in deciding which musician they want to perform at which event.

“It looks like we have never been able to come out and speak so every time they take us for granted and they just come and disrespect musicians and make us look little. They belittle us. It has been 10 years now and we don’t want to take anything for granted no more. It is high time… we need to respect musicians in Ghana. Why are Sarkodie, R2Bees, Edem, EL and VIP among others not on the bill?” he quizzed.

Coded expressed the belief that local acts are enough to entertain Ghanaians in various ways that the two foreign acts will not be capable of doing.

“Let us enjoy our own thing. If you ask me, those three boys, they will even kill Akon and Big Sean. If people are asked to tweet lines from Big Sean’s songs, they don’t know Big Sean. At least I know of only three giants in Ghana who are Amakye Dede, Daddy Lumba and Kojo Antwi. These people could have headlined that show because Guinness is a big brand,” he added.

The group recalled how the dancehall king Shatta Wale wowed the crowd with his electrifying performance during the BASS Awards when the headline artiste Elephant Man failed to show up.
“If you can remember, the same thing happened with Shatta Wale at the BASS Awards. They said we were going to see Elephant Man who was never in Ghana but Shatta Wale killed the show. We want to tell Guinness that they are not doing enough. They are really disrespecting we the musicians,” Coded stated.

The Big Eruption Concert is expected to attract a lot of people across the country to the Accra Sports Stadium to enjoy great tunes from Samini, Wizkid, Shatta Wale, Akon and Big Sean for free.

I WON'T BE DRAWN BACK - BECCA SAYS AFTER 'SNUB' AT GHANA-ZAMBIA MATCH

She saw it as one of the high points of her steadily blooming singing career but popular  Afro-Pop star, Becca found the words stuck in her throat as she got ready to sing the national anthem at the Baba Yara Stadium in Kumasi  last September during the  Ghana versus Zambia Brazil 2014 World Cup qualifier.

 Somebody had apparently pulled the rug from under her feet at the very last  moment  and she expressed her displeasure at the incident when she spoke at the UN Cultural Night at the Alliance Francaise in Accra last Friday.

“What I, the stadium announcer and pressmen who had relayed the information that I was about to make history did not know was that, a directive had come from an authority or perhaps authorities, that I do not sing the national anthem anymore.
 “Reason? I was a woman. The authority had, at the last minute, remembered that my being a woman apparently was bad omen. In other words, because I could menstruate, I was unworthy of singing our anthem.

“At least that was the explanation given to UNAIDS when they sought to know why an event that had cost precious time and effort to conceive and hatch was dumped,” Becca painfully said.

She became a  Goodwill Ambassador for  UNAIDS a few months ago and said the arrangement for her to sing the national anthem at the football match had been done through  UNAIDS under its Protect The Goal campaign with FIFA.

“The visiting team mimed their  anthem with support from the stadium's public announcement system. I was going to sing ours live through the cordless microphone made available for my act . The stadium announcer acting as emcee for the occasion introduced me because he had the official match day programme and was sticking to it,” Becca said.

Obviously disappointed that the only reason why she was not was allowed to sing on the occasion was because of her gender, Becca described the incident as ‘psychological abuse.’

According to Becca, she did not recount her ordeal to  create a platform for cheap political points. Rather it was to bring to light, a challenge that women have had to deal with for generations and which must cease.

“I have refused to be drawn back by such events and believe my urging all women to do same is a positive step in the right direction. I’m determined, competitive, confident , ambitious, courageous and productive just like any other person and that is why I will not be suppressed,” Becca  asserted.

A spokesperson for the Ghana Football Association (GFA) who was part of the planning for the Ghana-Zambia match, told Showbiz 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.

I WROTE ALL THE SONGS ON THE FIVE ALBUMS WE PRODUCED AS AKYEAME - OKYEAME QUOPHI

The Akyeame duo of Okyeame Kwame and Okyeame Quophi related to each other like the best of buddies until the end of their working relationship about 10 years ago.

The pair that brought us beautiful songs like Masan Aba, Asa Aba So and Menko Medo didn’t give details of what led to their break-up.

A recent interview Okyeame Quophi, now Quophi Okyeame, granted to Agyemang Prempeh, host of Gh Entertainment on Rainbow Radio has, however, revealed that some serious cracks might have existed between the two men.

Quophi Okyeame sounded like Okyeame Kwame had little or no songwriting ability during their days together. He said on Rainbow Radio that he (Quophi Okyeame) wrote all the songs during the Akyeame days.

“I wrote all the songs on the five albums we produced as Akyeame because Okyeame Kwame is not a writer. The only song he wrote was Tintinto and even with that, I wrote almost all the lyrics,” Quophi Okyeame said.

Despite the superior sort of stance he had tried to assume on the programme, Quophi Okyeame seemed unhappy when he realised the producer of the show had called Okyeame Kwame on the phone for his side of the story.

Quophi Okyeame threatened to walk away from the interview if Okyeame Kwame was allowed to make comments.

“If you have called Okyeame Kwame, then I have to stop the interview because that is not the reason why I came here. I don’t know why you should call him. It is very unnecessary.

“I have a project I am promoting so I did not come here to wake up dead dogs. You are asking me about my life. I did not come here to spark a quarrel. You interviewed Okyeame Kwame on this same platform and you did not call me so why do you call him now?” Quophi Okyeame asked the programme’s host.

Though Akyeame broke up several years ago, neither of the two men had come out to say what exactly led to their break- up. They have embarked on seemingly successful solo projects.

Quophi Okyeame is a music producer and video director as well as working as a presenter in radio and television.

Okyeame Kwame has also been working as CEO of One Mic Entertainment, has recorded albums under his name and has won the Songwriter of the Year honour on three occasions at the Ghana Music Awards.

Asked about what led to their break- up, Quophi Okyeame was reluctant to give details of the split. He rather urged the programme’s host to concentrate on his new project.

He, however, explained that Okyeame Kwame was his best pal for about 16 years before they went their separate ways.

“We did everything together. I used to write lyrics for him to rap back in the day at secondary school and I even nicknamed him Wizkid,” Quophi Okyeame pointed out.

As the interview progressed, Quophi Okyeame explained why he had been musically silent for a while. According to him, he had a prophecy that he would stop music for a while and then come back to it.

He stated that though he had not been in the public eye a lot with his music in recent times, he had been busy doing soundtracks for movies such as ‘Love Of A A’, ‘Suffering To Lose’, ‘Good Old Days’, ‘Sinking Sands’ and ‘Ties That Bind.’

When Showbiz contacted Okyeame Kwame about the things Quophi Okyeame had said about him on the programme, he declined to comment. He seemed more eager to talk about his recent collaboration with Nigerian artiste, J-Martins.