<<Print>>

Gospel singer Nicholas Omane Acheampong of �Zaphanat Panea� and �Tabitha Kum� fame never stops to amaze with his song titles and has come out with another jaw-breaking title for a song, �Maher-shalal-Hash-baz.� Nicholas visited NEWS-ONE to explain the song �Maher-shalal-Hash-baz� and how he came by the title. Interestingly, the musician turned up in the company of a very pretty young lady who he refused to talk about. Though the lady is believed to be his wife, she neither denied nor confirmed when NEWS-ONE asked her whether she was the one warming the musician�s bed at night. When the paper pushed further by telling Nicholas he has a beautiful wife, this was his response: �But I am also a handsome man, do you expect me to have a wife less beautiful?� �Maher-shalal-Hash-baz� �I was praying when I fell asleep but I later realized someone had walked into the room and tapped me to wake up. I thought it was one of my guys in the house but just when the sleep cleared from my eyes, the person turned his back on me and asked me to open my Bible to Isaiah chapter 8 and read. By The time I read verse 1, the person had vanished from the room. It was in the verse 1 that I saw the song title, �Maher-shalal-Hash-baz�, meaning, the enemy or evil one shall be destroyed. It is my new greeting for this Christmas. So when you meet someone just say �Maher-shalal� and the person would respond �Hash-baz� and then all enemies of poverty, sickness bareness shall be destroyed,� Nicholas Omane Acheampong explained to NEWS-ONE. Gospel Musicians Also Eat When asked whether the fame and popularity the �Zaphanat Panea� song had brought him was yielding some good money, Omani Acheampong had this to say: �Honestly, the money is not coming in the volumes I would have wished. But the principle has always been that I am a Minister of the Gospel of Christ first, before a musician. So once the gospel in my song is reaching people and ministering to them, I am happy and I thank God because if I focus only on the money, I may lose my gift or the spirit backing my songs.� �But gospel musicians also eat and it is sad sometimes we do not get paid what we should be paid. Sometimes event organizers, even some big pastors call you for an event or a crusade and when you finish the performance, they play games with you forgetting that you must pay your bandsmen, your team, buy fuel, get costumes and all that. But I have vowed not to have a problem with any man of God because of my pastor, Prophet Emmanuel Badu Kobi, head pastor of Glorious Wave Church, located behind the Cabel Gold TV at Sakumono.� Maher-shalal-Hash-baz Would Be Bigger. �Prophet Badu Kobi once said to me that I would do a song bigger than �Zaphanat Panea� and �Tabitha Kum�. I wondered how that can be possible but I now understand what he said. There is nothing he has said about my life that has not come to pass. So let us wait and see.