We didn’t use the Year of Return to promote Ghanaian music enough - Bisa Kdei laments

Popular Highlife artiste, Bisa Kdei has blamed the poor reception of Ghanaian music in other countries on the fact that the Year of Return and the Beyond the Return festivities were not used to promote Ghanaian music.

Speaking on Accra FM on March 28, Bisa Kdei acknowledged the impact the Year of Return and the Beyond the Return festivities had on the creative space and stated that those periods should have been used to promote authentic Ghanaian sounds like Highlife instead of Amapiano and Afrobeats.

“I don’t think we utilised the Year of Return well enough. Some foreigners, even Nigerians, came to Ghana hoping to hear authentic Ghanaian songs. But we were busy playing Amapiano and Afrobeats for them. So when they are going back to their countries, which songs will they take away?

“The Year of Return was very big, it attracted a lot of people from around the world. This was our chance to sell our culture and promote ourselves. But if you went to the clubs around that time, they were busy promoting songs from other countries,” he said.

This situation, he said, led to these sounds being accepted in international markets while Ghanaian music wasn’t being recognised.

“So if a Ghanaian artiste decides to host a show out there, the foreigners won't attend because they can't recognise his song. But they recognise the Afrobeats and the Amapianos,” he stated.

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