Paulina Oduro Remembers Paapa Yankson

“We who worked with him in Western Diamonds have not stopped talking about him. He was an amazing musician and also the funniest person you would ever know. It was always great fun being around him.”

 Those were comments from singer, Paulina Oduro, about the late Paapa Yankson with whom she worked from 1994 and were in the middle of recording a new set of songs when the popular singer/songwriter died on July 21 at the age of 78.
 
The pair collaborated on the famous ‘Tena Me Nkyen’ song in 2001 and performed it on several stages in this country and abroad.

Paulina said though she had recorded duets with other musicians such as Jon K, Bessa Simons and Felix Owusu, none of them caught as much attention as ‘Tena Me Nkyen.’

“I knew Popee (that was how she called him) was not well but did not envisage he would leave us at the time he did. He was one of my mentors and we spoke regularly. I was being featured on three tracks on the new album he was working on but we sadly could not get the main vocals done before he passed on,” said Paulina.

“Despite his wonderful sense of humour, some shyness, somehow, lurked in his character. He was sometimes quite sarcastic in his statements but he was always jovial and a father figure for some of us.”

Some of Paapa Yankson’s best-known songs include ‘Abam Kofi’, ‘Okukuseku’, ‘Show Your Love’, ‘Woara Akofa  Aba’,  ‘Jealousy’, ‘Men Sei  Mi Dzin’ and  ‘Bebia Odo Wo.’

A one-week celebration in his memory will be held from 9 a.m. on Friday, August 4 at the  Dansoman Keep Fit Grounds in Accra.