Ghanaian poet and literary coach Nana Asaase says highlife is gradually fading out of the system. Many have expressed worries about how the Afrobeats genre is over shadowing the other genres especially highlife.
Weeks ago, Ghanaian veteran highlife musician Gyedu-Blay Ambolley accused the organizers of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) for ‘killing’ highlife music through the less attention they give to the genre.
Nana Asaase speaking on Joy FM’s ‘Showbiz A-Z’ said;
“There are individual doing highlife. There are bands doing highlife, there are people in the background promoting highlife.”
“We might not have the numbers showing on Twitter, the number of people following this when we talk about the people who are doing the business of selling the music.”
He continued to say that;
“There are different layers of the audience. I dare say Wiyaala’s music even ventured into highlife. Atongo Zimba too. I think sometimes we just discredit ourselves.”
Highlife music which originates from Ghana is considered as an intangible heritage by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Highlife music is considered intangible heritage because of the knowledge, skills, representations, and instruments used in expressing our cultural heritage.
