Too much hypocrisy in gospel music industry – Kofi Donkor

Artiste manager and CEO of Dynamics Unlimited, Kofi Donkor, has blown the lid off the double standards and hypocrisy prevailing in the gospel music industry.

Donkor, who took to Facebook to vent his frustrations, told Graphic Showbiz that the gospel music sector was marred by a glaring two-faced nature of key stakeholders in the sector whose personal interests often overshadowed collective progress of the industry.

According to him, the gospel fraternity had always been hostile to artistes who featured secular artistes since they were deemed “unholy”.

He said these same people who openly jab gospel artistes for collaborating with secular artistes sing and dance to gospel songs written by the latter.

“I have always said that there is too much hypocrisy in the gospel music industry and that is really affecting us in many ways. As it stands now, we know that there are secular musicians writing songs for Gospel musicians, with some of these songs winning top awards at prestigious awards ceremonies.

“However, when it comes to these same gospel artistes featuring secular musicians, that’s when you will hear comments like ‘don’t be unequally yoked with unbelievers’. Now the question is, if a gospel musician cannot feature a secular musician, how can the same gospel artiste perform songs written by them? Is this not the height of hypocrisy?” he asked.

Recalled that in 2021, Celestine Donkor released Thank You featuring Highlife singers Akwaboah Jnr and Efya and received a huge backlash from notable stakeholders.

Kofi Donkor disclosed that the team halted promotions for Thank You at the time when some gospel-affiliated radio and television stations refused to play it because it flouted their rules.

“When Celestine Donkor featured Akwaboah and Efya on her Thank You song, some gospel TV and radio stations refused to play it because they said it was not gospel. Their reason was that it featured secular musicians but we are now okay with secular musicians writing songs for gospel musicians.

“Since Joyce Blessings Victory came out and it was stated clearly that it was written by Kuami Eugene, I expected the same people to heavily criticise it since he is a secular artiste. How come no one is talking about it?

“We should have one voice and stop the discrimination because it doesn’t help in any way. This is just hypocrisy,” he said.

Kofi Donkor, who is the chief executive officer (CEO) of Dynamics Unlimited, also mentioned concerns about divisions in the industry.

 “We are supposed to be one; because our goal is to preach the word of God, but it is unfortunate that is not so. We are rather backbiting each other and not united. Some artistes are favoured over others in the same gospel fraternity we find ourselves in, which shouldn’t be so. I am supporting anything gospel because I believe we are all doing the same thing,” he said.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6, 2023

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