Faisal Helwani & Yasmeen Helwani
Yasmeen Helwani, daughter of legendary Ghanaian music producer, Faisal Helwani has said her late father’s unreleased old records will finally be out.
Faisal who played significant roles in the activities of Musician Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), the then Copyright Society of Ghana (COSGA) and the entire Ghana music industry kept his records for years. He refused to release it due to “corruption” in the music industry.
He only wanted to release the records after certain key individuals in the industry music MUSIGA and COSGA at the time were probed. Unfortunately he didn’t live to see that happen.
Yasmin, speaking a press conference to announce, “Mother Earth Festival,” an upcoming reggae event by her late father’s music company, Bibini Music, which she now heads, said Faisal’s works would finally be released.
“We are trying to see the bright side of it,” she revealed.
“Faisal held on and he said if they don’t do it right, he won’t not release any of his works. He even withdrew his records from his own cousin and family members in town who were selling his records. But you see we are trying to see the bright side of it. And we are trying to have hope in our country because if we keep keeping it, it is music and music is not only about money…there is a very large spiritual aspect to music. Music means more than money. We are trying to put things right. Obviously artistes must eat…we must get paid for our work because just like any other thing music is a commodity. It is a product that we have spent sleepless nights on…but it is just unfortunate that it is difficult to rip the benefits of our works as musicians…I am his blood and I am going to make sure Faisal’s music lives on,” she said.
The Mother Earth Festival is a two day event to take place from Saturday March 26 to March 27 at Asaasi Yaa at Krokobite to celebrate Mother Earth and raise people’s awareness and conscious of the green lifestyle through music, dance and art.
There will include musical performances from some of Ghana’s award winning reggae musicians such Jahwi, Nii Lante, Osagyefo, Fiifi Selah and Yasmeen.
It is also to celebrate the life of Faisal Helwani and his immense contribution to Ghana’s music industry, Yasmin indicated.
There will be a historical exhibition of Faisal’s works at the festival for the public to have a feel of what he did for the music industry. After that his songs would be digitize before finally released sometime 2017.
“This festival is a way to raise some awareness and a way to also outdoor a few of the unreleased works of Faisal so that we give people a taste of what Bibini music has in stock because we have years and years to come. In the coming years we are hoping that we are able to have enough funding to digitize Bibini music works. As you know some of them were made years ago. We even have analogue tapes and all that. So we are in a big project to digitize the live works they have done all those years ago,” she added.
