Major boost for Ghanaian music as MUSIGA plans to establish annual music contest

The Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) has pledged to launch an annual national highlife music contest as part of its quest to elevate highlife music to a premier genre in Ghana and make it relevant globally.

This was revealed in an interview on Joy Prime’s Prime Morning show yesterday by the president of MUSIGA, Bessa Simons. According to him, highlife music creates an authentic music identity for Ghana, and there is a need to preserve and make it more relevant.

Highlife music was once a dominant genre in Ghana’s music industry. However, the genre has seen a decline in recent years, with concerns about its authenticity being overshadowed by influences from other genres.

To this end, MUSIGA has pledged to promote the highlife genre through various initiatives and is taking steps to establish an annual national competition for highlife artists. “We’re going to launch a music competition every year, and the winner will get something very attractive,” he stated.

Bessa Simons also mentioned the union’s plan to place a prize on Telecel Ghana Music Awards’ highlife category to attract artists to produce more high-quality highlife music. “We want to make highlife attractive. For big platforms like TGMA, we will support the highlife category there. And we will make sure there is a prize that MUSIGA can put on highlife and whoever wins that category, wins the prize. And we will make this prize so attractive,” he revealed.

According to Mr Simons, Ghana can draw global music lovers to the genre and increase the audience for Ghanaian music by asserting its origins and prioritising highlife music. “Once we intentionally make highlife a national brand so that wherever you go, you’ll hear highlife, and we’ll channel highlife to Ghana, that will help us because people will come looking for us rather than we, going looking for them,” he stated.

The MUSIGA president urged all Ghanaians to support the highlife genre by listening to it and participating in its promotions. He further encouraged musicians to incorporate highlife beats into other genres to foster a broader appreciation and revival of the genre.

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