Home Interviews & Features Music Repartee With Alex: Harshtag GodWin

Music Repartee With Alex: Harshtag GodWin [What The Gospel Artiste Keeps Missing]

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Hello #SelahAfrikNation! Did you see the way former president Olusegun Obasanjo tore his PDP membership card publicly? LoL… that was a sight to behold. One PDP member said it was immature. Anyways, that’s not why I am here. From my topic, you can tell I want to talk about Korede Bello’s new song and you are thinking ‘on a gospel site?’ Yeah!

If it is any consolation for the overtly religious, I am not talking about the song per se but my discussion is centered around the success of the song and the fact that  its content is edifying.

Days before I finally had the chance to hear the song while I was in a store at Ojuelegba, I had been seeing the harshtag – #GodWin – and have managed to link it to Korede Bello’s new single. ‘The song must be a very nice’, I thought to myself, ‘maybe with a political theme considering the election’, I let myself wonder.

But I heard the song and my first reaction was ‘dang! I wish a Frank Edwards thought of that!’

No offence to Korede Bello, Frank Edwards or any other Gospel artiste, especially the urban Gospel artiste but I remember the same thing happened with ‘Doro Bucci’, I saw a lot of Christian coining out words with the ‘Doro’ phrase and I wondered why they didn’t think of the phrase in the first place if they are so taking by it. Now, I am seeing the same thing happen with ‘God Win’ and it’s even more painful this time because this is a phrase any Christian could have thought of… just like that!

Forgive my saying but we sometimes act like hypocrites. We talk about how unedifying these contents are, but once they get popular, we are the first to coin out Christian phrases from them… even do covers. Now I am thinking, for you to have been taken by the word or phrase, you must have at some point listened to this sweet unedifying content whereas, we could have been the ones coining out phrases for the world. For instance, Giljoe came up with “Christian Baller”, Sammie Okposo came up with “Wellu Wellu” and the beautiful thing about that Phrase is that it stuck till date!

Image result for KOREDE BELLOKorede Bello in the song “GodWin” managed to package a gospel content and while he was selling it to the world, also sold it back to Christians who should have been the originator of such a slang or creator of such a song. The most beautiful thing about the song is that it is not even a dance track! It makes me wonder, if such a song that is somewhat so decent, not an everyday club banger can blow up even than an average club song, could it be that we blame the media too much for Christian music not being popular?

Even when a Christian finally manage to push the limit and release a song with the potential of a big hit which we can draw out catch phrases from, he/she is comfortable with the online success and the followers that keeps famzing him/her about the song that he becomes complacent to further promotional plans… I mean seriously, are you just going to keep making songs for your followers for the period of your career/ministry peak? Whatever happened to being the light of the world?!

Now I am waiting for someone to do a cover of ‘GodWin’ and tell me ‘this will bless you, kindly download’ and I will do like Zebrudaya’s wife and reply ‘If it’s not panadol, it can’t be the same thing as panadol!’

We keep complaining about the content on TV, radio and blogs but I have never seen complaints change anything. It’s high time even the average Gospel artiste became serious and responsible about their craft. Stop giving us 2nd best and holding us to ransom if we are not fond of it! The mistake the artiste keep making is that they think their song is just about them but I beg to differ, it’s bigger than you! It’s about the whole of Nigeria, if not Africa and the world. If each Gospel artiste becomes responsible to dedicate their craft for the well being of the society and churn out edifying content that an average Nigerian can relate to without the religious barriers, if they pay more attention to the widespread of such content and not be dithered by media personalities who wants to box them to Sundays and early mornings, if we do this, I think we can score a good mark today and truly… #GodWin always.

– Written by Alex Amos

Do you agree or disagree with Alex? Please drop your comment below.

 

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14 COMMENTS

  1. I have always av dis same thought. Our so called gospel artiste hardly think deep. We don’t av too many creative nd thinking artistes dat is why they stil repeat same Lyrics like ‘When I was down, u lifted me’ ‘U changed my story’ bla bla.

    Aside dat…I think anoda problem we shld look into is promotion. Most of dem don’t av d financial power even if they av gud songs.

    May God help us

  2. I was directed here by Mike Abdul (great guy) and I’m rather impressed someone else mirrors my opinions.
    I refuse to have an artiste introduce him/herself or their song with the tag ‘Gospel Artiste’ or ‘Gospel Album’

    I feel it is an excuse to present something substandard
    Regular artistes don’t call themselves secular artistes, nor use the tags, ‘Secular album’ ‘Secular Concert’

    We need to wake up and be defined by our content. If its good enough, it will fly. If not, go back to work.

    I’m a Christian, and I manage artistes. My guitarist actually played the guitars on #Godwin and we celebrate that success. Hypocrisy won’t get you to the grammies.
    Thank you

  3. I hear you. And I agree to a large extent. But it seems it me that you’re generalizing and stereo typing. We’ve heard this over and over but what are YOUR recommendations? What solutions do you offer or suggest for the “upcomings”? In truth, condemnation or comparison isn’t what we need, it’s guidance! Direction. Information. Leadership. Expository, proven & productive. Not all are mediocre. Or hypocritical, or jugdemental. The genuine and sincere ones mostly face issues that keep them where they are! Mike Abdul, Frank Edwards and a good number of them are doing what they can to assist, mentor and make the way for those coming along, (e. g. Monique, Gil, DARA & co) but we still need sincere, transparent, unified leadership and mentorship in this ministry in Nigeria. A lot of these artistes do have these ideas, some get shut down, some have no funding, some just don’t have the confidence! Most of the talent and gifting in the church is being aborted and stifled by so much more than we see or know…..

    • I reckon with what you are saying but like any other industry, there will always be challenges, let’s consider this as one of the ways to help tackle the challenges. Definitely not all are mediocre and special shoutout to the ones you’ve mentioned and even more… I guess my point is we ought to stop taking second seat when we are to be in the front row. Some artistes know this, some don’t… Thank you for taking your time. God bless

  4. The sad thing you failed to point out in this entire article Mr. Alex is that Korede Bello is a Christian! He is a believer, just like you and all the other ‘gospel’ artistes, but because he refused to allow himself to be tagged a ‘gospel’ artiste, the world accepted his music and he rode on the popularity of his label boss to record-breaking stardom.

    However, in the ‘gospel’ realm people are more concerned about who is holier than the other, and forget that the battle is for souls. You cannot affect a ‘system’ if you don’t speak their language. Jesus asked that we be as wise as the serpent, but as gentle as a dove. When a Christian artiste tries to push the envelope, the so-called gospel community will say they have lost it, just ask Tim Godfrey (Good day) and Nikki Laoye (African Dance). The truth is that there is a vacuum that Christian artistes need to fill up and they are not!

    You go to weddings and all you hear is Dorobucci, Ada-ada! Even at Christian weddings! I was at a gospel artiste’s wedding a while back and the DJ played Ada-Ada and the likes. Meanwhile, christian artistes are satisfied with singing “Praising the Lord always”! there is a void and people are confused about how to love! Love is equated to sex, but the Christian artiste who should know what true love is about, can’t sing about it, because they will ask “Is he/she still born again”

    Hypocrisy needs to end!!!!!!

    • You are so right! Ayo Vincent did a fantastic song with Don Jazzy #OroboPortion but Christians rejected it, the same Christians that changed their names to Doro-Tunde, so who is fooling who? Music is a tool that can be very effective, you have no idea how many people decided to find out more about Jesus because Kanye West sang ‘Jesus Walks’ we have the potential for influence, but we would rather stay in Church

  5. To me, I feel like we as Christians don’t take ownership of our artistes when they release songs. Don Jazzy would send out a tweet when he is releasing a new song, and before you know it the song is trending and people are calling radio stations that they wanna hear it. Instead our beloved christian brothers don’t even listen to the radio, talkless of call in to request for the Frank Edwards, Nikki Laoyes, Henrisouls or Flo, who I feel are doing great stuff that can match any of these mainstream artistes.

    If we do not celebrate our own, make our own look desirable, the world will not do it for us!!! If we celebrate and support our artistes the way mainstream artistes are supported then they will get the massive airplay we desire. I have seen gospel artistes try to start hashtags and movements, but their followers on social media, and the ‘gospel’ blogs don’t even push it at all.

    When Tiwa Savage sneezes, all the entertainment blogs would go gaga about it, when Frank Edwards gives to charity, not a soul talks about it.

    Instead of complaining, let’s make our artistes look and feel desirable. When they do, the sky would be the limit

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