Gospel music legend, Mary Ghansah, has spoken about her musical exile as she prepares to return to the Ghanaian gospel scene with a mega concert.
Having written her first song titled ‘God is love’ at the age of 15, Mary grew up to become Ghana’s most influential and inspirational gospel act in 1974 when she came out with her first album ‘Nyame y3 Odo’.
The album propelled her to stardom as she won the admiration of many Ghanaians, most of whom at the time preferred gospel music to no other.
Following up with her second album ‘Onipa B3n’, and ‘What a friend?’ within a short time frame, Ghansah became a household name credited with 20 albums until she stepped out of the limelight for a long hiatus from the music business.
In an exclusive interview with StarrFMonline.com, Mary said it was not a total disappearance as it seemed.
“It wasn’t a total disappearance -somewhere along the line I took some time off to go to school because I needed to update myself. I also branched off to Pastor a church.”
"With the schooling bit, I went to study some theology because I believed what I sing and preach must be bible fact-based. I needed to get that balance and even though I was still singing and on programs, they weren’t the type that were on TV with a lot of publicity."
Now the 'Nyame y3 Odo' hit maker is back and celebrates what she said is “40 years of God’s goodness”.
According to her, the Lord has been good to her throughout her career. She said she owes everything she has become to the “mercies” shown her.
The singer, however, admitted to StarrFMonline.com coming back onto the music scene has not been that easy.
She said the industry has grown hostile to her kind.
“If you get to my age it’s as if these ones are done… they hardly verbalise it but you can see from their actions, the way they look at you and even the way they try to play you down. It’s like they can’t send you anywhere.”
She said although technological advances have made music production a lot easier, it comes with some unique challenges.
"Especially in the days that you have things like record labels, rebranding, social media and all these jargons in the industry, and here we are also, the old ones, so where do we fit?”
Despite the challenges, Ghansah is confident she will rise above and make as much impact as she did back in the days.
She said the fact that there are a lot more gospel artists around is inspiring.
“In our days it was just a few of us. But now there are so many gospel singers and they are doing so well,” she noted.
According to her, the mandate of Christians is to evangelise and music is one of the most effective medium. “God in his own wisdom has called a lot of singers into his vineyard to propagate his work.”
The ‘Mary Ghansah @ 40’ concert comes off on Sunday, September 28 at the College of Physicians and Surgeons.
Also performing at the concert will be the Daughters of Glorious Jesus, Stella Seal, Rev Yawson, Tagoe Sisters, Elder Mireku and Rev Yabs.
