Build your brand outside your husband’s name – Empress Gifty advises
Gospel singer, Gifty Adorye, has advised budding gospel musicians to build their brands outside their partner’s image.
According to her, young female musicians should not use their married names in showbusiness. She says it is safer to maintain their maiden names.
“I have told them that when you marry and you are coming into the music industry, you don’t come with your husband’s name, because you will face challenges when the marriage fails” she added.
The musician’s caution follows the increasing breakdown of marriages between female gospel musicians and their spouses.
The ‘Odiyompo’ singer, affectionately called Empress Gifty, is herself a victim of this situation.
She started her singing career as Mrs. Gifty Osei but had to rebrand when her 10-year marriage collapsed.
“The youth should be careful so they don’t repeat the mistakes we made, you can choose to call yourself any name like lady Empress, lady Gaga, Queen Empress but never call yourself by your husband’s name. Because if you make that mistake and your marriage collapses, you’ll have to rebrand all over again and that is expensive, so it’s better to save yourself that stress,” she said on Adom TV’s Okukuseku talk show.
The singer, though remarried to politician Hopeson Adorye, goes by the showbiz name Empress Gifty.
Some failed marriages
Singer Gifty Osei was married to Prophet Prince Elisha Osei, their 10-year-marriage collapsed in 2014 over rumors of infidelity. The singer, now Mrs. Adorye is married to politician Hopeson Adorye.
Esther Smith and her ex-husband, Revered Kwame Ahenkan Bonsu, were together for four years, but the marriage hit the rock over rumors of infidelity and domestic abuse.
Formerly Diana Akiwumi, the singer separated from her husband over allegations of abuse. She is now married to Dr. Emmanuel Hopeson.
Agnes Opoku-Agyemang was a promising gospel singer in the early 2000s, however, she left the music scene after her divorce in 2013.
According to her, she has not seen nor spoken to her ex-husband in 9 years.
The latest to join the list is singer Joyce Blessing, married to Dave Joy, who doubled as her manager, the two separated in 2020 over allegations of infidelity and abuse.
Well l agree with Gifty Osei ako Empress Gifty with new or legal name of Mrs Gifty Adorye. However let’s be clear on this. In Ghana it is not automatic or compulsory to adopt a spouse’s name after marriage. What we do here is a change of name, which makes the new name your legal name! This legal name may have to be used on legal documents such as passport, social security, driver’s license etc. However what people don’t know is that you can use both names equally. I know of a woman who uses her maiden name for all academic certificates though she uses her marital name at work and socially.
However if you adopt your husband’s name, it becomes your own name. You may chose to maintain, change to maiden name or another new marital name. Some prominent women over the world are still using a marital name trace to an earlier marriage name, though remarried to other people.
We have former German Chancellor Angela Merkle, former South African First Lady, Graca Machel. Others divorced but not remarried is Helena Rhabbles nee Mends and Rev Dr. Francisca Duncan Williams formerly Rev Mrs. Nicholas Duncan Williams. So Gifty Osei Adorye is not the only one faced with this issue. One like Ophelia Nyantakyi decided to go by Abena Serwaa Ophelia