Ghanaian highlife artiste Deon Boakye has called on the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) to make the highlife genre of music very attractive, especially to the youth.
The ‘Gone’ hitmaker, in an exclusive interview with The Ghana Report, expressed worry over how much attention is often given to Afrobeats artists rather than Highlife artists.
Deon Boakye also claimed that financing for Highlife music is also a challenge, as most investors prefer to support Afrobeats music over Highlife.
“MUSIGA must make highlife music more attractive again, especially to the youth. That’s all we have as Ghanaians”.
“Investors feel highlife is fading and look for Afrobeat artists,” he noted.
It will be recalled that award-winning dancehall artiste Charles Nii Armah Mensah, popularly known as Shatta Wale, in 2021 also urged Ghanaian musicians to produce more of the Highlife music genre.
According to him, it is the only music genre that can give Ghanaian artists some identity abroad. He added that highlife music has a beautiful history of being the mother genre of veteran highlife musicians such as; Agya Koo Nimo, Ampofo Adjei Snr, and Nana Tuffuor among other renowned performers.
Deon Boakye as he is popularly known, also believes that highlife music can be revived if artists continue to narrate the Ghanaian story through music.
Deon Boakye currently has three extended plays: the Green EP, Legendary Journey EP, and the upcoming Minus Ten album.
Aside from Gone, Deon Boakye is known for songs like, ‘You Do All’, ‘Heart Break’, ‘Malaika(Remix)’, ‘Ova Dem’, ‘Trillion’, ‘Usain Bolt’, ‘Akua Abrafi’, ‘Love Ghana’, ‘Legon’, ‘Girl’, ‘327’, ‘Okyena’, ‘Dab’, and ‘Anigyie’.’
He has also worked with artists like Samini, Pappy Kojo, Medikal, Strongman, Eno, Kofi Kinaata, and others.
The highlife artist is set to release a new song titled ‘mpompo’ on Friday, November 24, 2023.