Ghana’s Gospel Artiste of the Year Herty Bongreat, currently making waves with her ‘Stronger’ track, has called for a concerted effort to encourage the sale of gospel songs in Ghana.
“I have heard some say that music lovers buy gospel songs more than the other genres of music, but the truth is that what we sell is still nothing to write home about and I believe we have to come together as industry people and share ideas on how to get our albums sold rather than focus on the petty things that seem to divide us”, was how Herty responded when NEWS-ONE reached her over comments that the promotion of her new single, ‘Stronger’ is discouraging the sale of gospel songs.
Herty, Cwesi Oteng, Nicholas Omani Acheampong of ‘Zaphenat Panea’ fame, O.J and Preachers have recently come under condemnation from a section of the media in a cruel campaign spearheaded by Channel R and Flex for promoting single tracks instead of full albums.
“Cwesi Oteng won Album of the Year so I find it strange that anyone would accuse him of discouraging the sales of gospel albums. Zaphenat Panea is from an album, I have two albums, ‘Odo Ben Ni’ and ‘Take Them To Church’. I am currently working on my third album and ‘Stronger’ is just one of the tracks from that album. Look it costs money to come out with albums so why would I or any of the manes you have mentioned do anything to discourage people from buying gospel songs? That would be rather odd.
“What our critics do not understand is that the explosion of social media and digital technology has taken over the conventional style of marketing and promoting of songs. So when you see us promote our songs on social media, it does not mean we don’t want people to buy our albums. We make more money when we sell our CDs, our distributors also make some money and at the end of the day we are all happy because our industry gets to grow. But this does not mean we should not push our songs and the message of the gospel into new frontiers and territories,” Herty explained.
She opined that such trivial attempts to create a wedge or enmity among gospel musicians by suggesting some of them are discouraging the sale of gospel albums is a direct way of killing gospel music.
“I have always said that as gospel musicians, we are one people with one calling from one master. The Great Commission we all received from the resurrected Christ mandates us to spread His message to all nations of the world. This is what binds us together in one love. This is what we should focus on but not petty avoidable trivialities and untruths about who does not want who to buy whose album”, Herty told NEWS-ONE.
She added: “But if we all realise that we have to sell more albums, then we should unite and talk about it as stakeholders in a healthy, open-hearted environment because we are all interested in selling albums. If I were not interested I would not have Pat Thomas, Money Matters, Aggie or Shepherds just to distribute and market my albums and I believe should and can sell more.”
Herty Bongreat is currently promoting her new single, ‘Stronger’ also known as ‘People Dey Wonder’. The song is lead track for her upcoming third album.
Inspiration for the ‘Stronger’ track was taken from Isaiah 40:31 which reads, “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”
