Gospel veterans, the church are why we’re paid peanuts when we deserve same as Shatta Wale - Patience Nyarko

“It’s very, very true,” that Gospel musicians are paid lesser than secular artistes, Patience Nyarko has said.

When she was asked why this was the case, she lay the blame on Gospel music veterans.

She explained: “When they started, there were CD sales, and a lot of things that brought them money, so whenever they were invited to perform by a church leader, they would decline payment saying they are okay.”

This was “because selling even one box of CDs for them and adding meat pie and a fizzy drink was okay for them,” she added, throwing her head back in laughter.

“The work back then did not have money at its centre like today,” Patience said.

The Obi Nyane Me (Someone Wake Me Up) hitmaker asserted, since this was the practice for a long time, “anyone that followed had to carry on on that same path”.

“That precedence did us a disservice,” she asserted, stressing that the practice of not paying Gospel musicians started from the church “and gradually came outside, and was picked up by event organisers”.

She noted that “these days, music is very, very expensive,” observing, also, that “there has been progress” in the fee given to Gospel act.

Patience Nyarko ended by urging enlisters of Gospel musicians “to pay us like they pay people like Shatta Wale because we all use the same studios and services” and, thus, bear the same cost of production.

The Gospel singer guested on CTV’s Class Showbiz, Thursday, October 5, 2023.