Gyedu-Blay Ambolley, a Ghanaian Highlife Legend, has urged music industry players to maintain, grow, and encourage Highlife as a genre that reflects the country’s identity.
He bemoaned the recent loss of music’s identity at the unveiling of the ‘Highlife Is Alive Fan Club’ in Accra on Monday, and expressed hope that the club will help uplift and retain the Highlife genre.
The Club’s mission is to establish highlife as a national art form, encourage it as an international art form, and work toward its acceptance as a national cultural heritage.
“Every country has its own music, so why should we abandon highlife to pursue other genres such as reggae and dancehall, among others?” It’s a shame that our radio stations are promoting other genres, which is a complete deviation,” Mr Ambulley said.
“Highlife is the cradle of all dance music on the planet. We can’t sit back and let highlife fade away because the younger generation is already performing songs with borrowed rhythms.”
“Because of the missing ties between the older and younger artists, the divergence from our original music is becoming quite fast. So it’s up to us, the older people, to bring our heads together to save the situation,” Mr Ambolley said.
The Fan Club’s Chairman, Mr George Aryee (Nii Krotia I – Noyaa Mantse Ngleshie Alata), announced that the Club will assist in the development of a shared forum for highlife fans, musicians, and other industry players.
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“Highlife is a national treasure,” says the narrator. It is a part of our history. Highlife is a music that takes all to the dance floor and unites us as a group. “Highlife has acted as a forum for reflection on all sorts of social, economic, and political circumstances in our past as a people,” he said.
“Given that the Highlife music genre is just around 100 years old, it is past time to find avenues to ensure the continuous growth, progression, promotion, and protection of this special national art form.”
Mr. Aryee believes it is beyond time for highlife to be recognized and officially instituted as a national art gem and heritage.
The Guest of Honour, Mr Amin Alhassan, Director General of the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, emphasized the importance of celebrating and promoting highlife as a national identification.
The Fan Club, he stated, was a vital forum for advocating for the institutionalization of highlife as a national art form, as most industrialized countries had done in recent years.
SOURCE: ATLFMONLINE
