Bessa Simons
The President of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA), Bessa Simons, has revealed plans by the union to motivate and celebrate highlife musicians in the country.
According to him, MUSIGA will, from next year, award special prizes to winners of the highlife category in the Telecel Ghana Music Awards (TGMA).
Speaking to Kwame Dadzie on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z, he said this is one of the strategies the union has put in place to help preserve highlife music.
“One thing MUSIGA is doing to promote highlife is that next year, because we are partners with TGMA, we are adding a special award to the person who wins the highlife category,” he said.
Asked if this prize will be in cash, he said: “it will be more than a cash prize.”
Bessa Simons, in a chat with BEATWAVES recently, called on music industry players to preserve, develop, promote and protect highlife as a genre that represents the national identity.
According to him, highlife is a genre that reflects the true identity of Ghanaians.
The MUSIGA president hopes that his fellow musicians, both young and old, would continue to play highlife music.
He added that one of the reasons highlife is waning in popularity is the absence of a coordinated plan by Ghanaian music industry players to advance the genre.
Though he doesn’t have problems with stakeholders in the industry projecting other music genres, but rather thinks that highlife music is an indigenous Ghanaian music and better identified as the country’s identity than the other genres.