Highlife artiste, Abiana, like her colleagues in the music industry and many Ghanaians, is beside herself with joy for the acceptance of Highlife music by the Recording Academy of the United States (US), popularly known as Grammy Awards; however, she believes it was long overdue.
Yesterday, June 13, 2023, Ghana’s Drill and Highlife music genres were announced as part of relevant African music styles for the Best African Music Performance category at this year's Grammy awards.
The Best African Music Performance category is one of the three new slots that have been added to the 2024 edition of the prestigious music awards scheme. The other two are the Best Alternative Jazz Album and Best Pop Dance Recording.
The Grammy awards are presented by the Recording Academy of the US to recognise outstanding achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious and significant awards in the music industry worldwide.
In a conversation with Graphic Showbiz yesterday, Abiana, 2021 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) Best Female Vocal Performance winner, said Highlife music had travelled around the world with the likes of Osibisa and Ebo Taylor, among others, becoming global music icons, an indication the genre attained international recognition and repute a very long time ago.
She described Grammy's recognition as a good cause even though the progress of Highlife had not been loud on the global front in recent years and, therefore, supported the call for Ghanaian musicians to have a collective identity for their music.
“We are all happy for this acknowledgement but this is long overdue. But who do we blame? As stakeholders, we must take the responsibility to forcefully promote what we have.
“Yes, I see an ongoing debate about how Ghana needs an identity in terms of how our music should be called, I believe that Highlife is the main core of music that Ghanaians are celebrated for.
“If you look at the past, Highlife has done a lot for Ghana, Looking at Osibisa and recently, Rocky Dawuni’s The Voice of Bunbon, which was nominated in the Global Music category at the Grammy awards was Highlife. This shows that anytime Ghana gains global mention for music, Highlife is there but we are not branding it.
“We need to go back to it and then as artistes, intentionally call ourselves Highlife musicians so that the brand will be globally recognised,” she said.
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