Pushing foreign genres will not sell Ghana – Mikki Osei Berko to artistes

Actor and TV personality, Mikki Osei Berko, has urged musicians to promote more of the Ghanaian genre of music as compared to other foreign genres.

According to him, Ghanaian artiste investing in foreign genres of music like dancehall, reggae or pop, will not help sell the country.

“When people outside want Dancehall they know where to go and it is not Ghana yet our finest ones are throwing their support for dancehall,” he said on Behind the Fame on Drive Time on Joy FM.

He told Sammy Forson on Monday, it is good to be versatile but the adoption of other genres is killing the prospects of Ghanaian music in the foreign market as some musicians are confused about what they do.

“People sing Highlife and call it dancehall, in fact our neighbouring countries have picked it [Hilife] up and are calling it afrobeat now. They are so confusing, we have not proper definitions,” Mikki added.

A lot of work he said, has been done by past activists of the Ghanaian music to just lose it to other countries.

‘Master Richard’ as he is popularly known said., it was not a bad idea for artistes to expand their mileage but attention should be given to Ghanaian genres to help draw eyes to the country’s arts and culture.

He said, “our first president was travelling with a live band to introduce our music to the world. I will urge our artistes to push our music to people in the world, give them the chance to know us and our music as well.”