Although the music industry seems to be doing better than some of the other arms of the creative arts sector, the reality says Highlife artiste, Lucky Mensah is that it is only a few artistes (the well-established ones or those whose songs are popular now) who are raking in the big bucks with the rest struggling to get by.
He goes on to say while stakeholders try to find ways to eliminate the challenges that the musicians face, some are trying to find other ways to survive but for him, many musicians are not well off financially because they are too proud to do other jobs.
According to the Old School singer, a lot of musicians feel too big to take up other ventures because of the fame they enjoy. For him, in spite of his status, he is willing to do any business that will help him put food on the table for his family.
“I currently bake bread in my house and take it out for distribution. How many of our musicians or actors can do that.
“ Most of them feel so big to do any work apart from what they are known for but hey, if I need to bake bread or go fishing just to put food on the table, I have no problem at all,” he told Showbiz on Monday.
Lucky Mensah said he is not too sympathetic of poor musicians because he believes their situation is their own doing because they have not used fame to their advantage.
He stated that there are a lot of musicians who had more money than him during their days but are broke now because of mismanagement of their finances and failing to do any other jobs.
“It saddens my heart when I see my colleagues begging for money on radio from individuals or the government and I wish musicians will take my advice and make hay while the sun shines,” he said.
On the music front, not much has been heard of Lucky Mensah who brought us popular songs like Wo Te Akoma, Agooji, Wope A Hwe, Brofre Nie, Aduu Sumo Akwadu, Bottom Of My Heart, I Miss You, Nkratuo among others and he says he will be coming with a bang by the end of the year.
Although he says he took a long break to focus on other money making ventures, Lucky Mensah blamed radio presenters for trying to kill Highlife music.
“Radio presenters were reluctant in pushing my last album and I can boldly say that made me take that long break. These same radio presenters will play songs from Nigeria and reject theirs because you don’t grease their palms,” he said.
Another thing Lucky Mensah is not happy about is how radio presenters retire musicians. “Radio presenters prefer to push the new generation than the older ones. We old musicians struggle a lot when we release a song and we need promotion,” he said.
<<Print>>