Gospel music pays when done well – Agnes Opoku-Agyeman
Complaints by Gospel musicians about not being paid when they perform in churches, among other things, have given the impression that there is no money in Gospel music.
But veteran Gospel musician Agnes Opoku-Agyeman disagrees. Having done Gospel music for the past 20 years, she opined that the genre was financially rewarding when done well.
“God has a way of blessing everyone and this is not different with Gospel artistes, you just need to do good songs which will receive positive responses from the public and you are good to go.
“Obviously, if what you are churning out is not good enough, there is no way you can make money so every Gospel musician should make it a point to come out with inspiring songs that will touch people. When you do good songs, you will always get invitations to perform at many places and you will cash in on that.
“I have been in this business for the past two decades and I can say without hesitation that it is very profitable and I believe my colleagues will agree with me, especially those who have been churning great songs over the years,” she stated.
Away from that, Agnes Opoku-Agyeman shared her thoughts on why Gospel musicians hardly do collaborations.
“It is true that we hardly do collaborations but it is because back in the day when someone admired a Gospel artiste, they wanted to hear only their songs and no one else.
“They were usually interested in hearing the voice of their idol and not a collaboration but times have changed and we have realised that our fans love to see us collaborate so we will do it to make them happy.
“The other reason is that in our industry, everybody sees himself or herself as big so it is difficult to approach people for collaborations because one cannot be too sure the kind of response he or she will get.
“I have done something with Quophi Okyeame and it will be released very soon. I know some of my colleagues have also done some collaborations so we should be hearing more of that in the nearest future,” she said.
Agnes Opoku-Agyeman used the opportunity to encourage her fellow Gospel artistes to be united.
“It is very necessary that we stand united, it is only when we are together that we can find solutions to our industry’s problem.
“When we are united, our voices can be heard far and near. We will also be able to support each other when we have a united front so I will urge all of us to do well to come together as one people with one common destiny,” she said.
Agnes, who has nine albums to her credit, released a single titled Book of Life about two weeks ago and it is already receiving appreciable airplay. “Book of Life is off my upcoming album which will be released in August to coincide with my 20th anniversary in the music industry.
“I have already released Aseda off the same album and I will be releasing singles till the album release in August,” she said.
Some of her albums include Mensan M’akyi, Mehuni Y3 Anka, Siesie Me, Abusua Bone and Hwe Na Som Nyame Yie.