Gospel Music Legends ‘Missing’

An event dubbed “Gospel Music Legend Night” was introduced last year to honour and celebrate old gospel musicians in Ghana. The criterion, according the organizer is for only solo or group gospel artistes, who have been doing gospel music for at least 20 years and above.

Though the event was initially scheduled to come off early December last, it was postponed thrice; it finally happened last Saturday February 27 at the Accra international Conference Centre. Several great Gospel artistes were lined up to perform and to be honored as Gospel legends on the night.

The likes of Tagoe Sisters, Bernice Offei, Daughters of Glorious Jesus, Emy Newman, Rev. Thomas Yawson, Rev. Kusi Berko, Elder Mireku, Stella Seal, Rev. Mary Ghansah and Joyful Way Incorporated. They were decorated with kente sashes with Medal lockets, awarded with plagues and framed citations.

Conspicuously, pioneer of gospel music in Ghana like Prof. Kofi Abraham, Yaw Sarpong, Wofa Asumani, Comfort Annor, Mc Abraham, YABS, Helena Rabels, and others who have also done gospel music for over twenty years, were missing on the night. Peacefmonline.com asked the organizer why they decided to leave out names that cannot be left out in the history of Gospel music in Ghana.

Andrew Lartey, event coordinator of Episode 7 Events, Organizer of the event said they were very much aware of all the names mentioned but they could either not reach them or they simply did not have reliable contacts to them. “We tried to contact some of them but we couldn’t get them and some were also out of the country. This is the first event and obviously we cannot cover the entire gospel musician. So we will try and get all the others on board in subsequent events”. He stated

Andrew also disclosed to peacefmonline that the event will travel to Kumasi, the Ashanti regional Capital, to honor three Kumasi based Gospel musicians: Yaw Sarpong, Prof. Kofi Abraham and Esther Nyamekye as gospel legends, and introduce the ten musicians honored in Accra, to their fans in Kumasi, during the upcoming Easter Celebration. They will later move to Takoradi in the Western region, where all thirteen honoraries will meet their fans. According to Andrew no musician will be honored in Takoradi.

However, peacefmonline investigation reveals that contrary to Andrew’s reason, all the gospel musicians who were neglected were in Ghana throughout the period the event was introduced, till it finally came off last Saturday.