Gospel artiste Celestine Donkor has admitted to having to grease the palms of presenters and DJs to have her songs played on radio and television.
The Supernatural singer, asked by host Andy Favoured on Accra100.5FM’s Gospel 360 on Sunday, 20 November, if she had had to part with money in exchange for more airplay for her songs, responded tersely: “I pay payola,” but refused to give details about who the recipients were, saying: “I don’t want to go into all that.”
However, she blamed the “challenge” on personalities in the media who would only play artistes’ songs after being offered cash, saying such a development had made it difficult particularly for new artistes with “genuine talent” and good songs from coming in to the limelight.
Celestine Donkor conceded that even though some people in the industry help new musicians to “come up”, the “majority are driven by money” on especially “good platforms” – stations which command a lot of listenership or viewers.
“It looks like in our country, money determines which songs become hits, which is not right. If you have a song which is good and you are a talented singer but have no money to push it … you are unable to make yourself known. It is one thing that makes a lot of musicians struggle even though listening to their songs, they are wow songs. I don’t speak for only myself. It is a challenge in the industry,” she disclosed.
She called on the media to realise that their relationship with artistes was a mutual one in which musicians give them “content” while they give them the “exposure”, asking: “What will be of a radio station or TV station if they don’t play music or they don’t air videos? I think we need to look at that angle…”
Source: Ghana/AccraFM.com
