Fameye, a well-known Ghanaian musician, has drawn attention to the difficulties experienced by local musicians in the country’s music business, specifically the problem of poor attendance at foreign concerts.
Fameye admitted during an open interview with Berla Mundi on TV3 that the lack of support from the Ghanaian diaspora forces many Ghanaian performers to postpone their performances. He contrasted the predicament to that of Nigerian rapper Wizkid and accused the Ghanaian community abroad of failing to support local performers.
“Why do Ghanaian artists keep cancelling their shows? They don’t come. If Wizkid holds a show, even if the show is four months away, it will be sold out. I’ve witnessed it, in New York, and I don’t want to mention names. Big, big names from here. Just last year, they had a concert in a small place. Not even ten people showed up. If I mentioned names, you would be surprised.” he disclosed.
Even his most recent performance in the UK, he said, had a lower attendance than anticipated. The musician expressed nostalgia for a time when Nigerian and Ghanaian artists frequently cooperated because of the latter’s robust support network.
“I had my show in the UK, like, last week. I was expecting a lot of people. It was only a few who came. Our people are not supporting us. It feels intentional because it wasn’t like that before. There was support then; that was why Nigerians were featuring Ghanaian artists at that time.
“Burna Boy was featuring Shatta, Flavour was featuring Sarkodie because they knew the support was there, but right now we are the ones chasing them to feature them,” he said.
