Gospel musician Bernard Amankwah has advised his colleague gospel musicians to give credit to original composers of songs they ‘borrow’.
The host of Celebration of His Grace concert expressed frustration over the growing trend of what he describes as song theft and lack of recognition for the original creators.
In an interview with Graphic Showbiz on Monday, October 28, Bernard Amankwah, who has been in the industry for over a decade and has witnessed first-hand the impact of this issue, explained that the happening didn’t only infringe on the copyrights of original creators but also stifles the growth of the Ghanaian gospel scene.
He pointed out that the gospel genre, which is intended to inspire and uplift, gets tainted when such unethical practices are allowed to persist.
One of the issues in our industry that is worrying is people picking other people’s songs and not crediting them and then making commercial capital out of them.”
“It’s disheartening to see fellow artistes making hits from other people’s work and fleecing them yet giving them no credit.”
“It’s not right for someone to just pick a song that one has written, rehash it and profit financially from it. It is so wrong and we need to tackle it with a sense of urgency.”
“It must be noted that people invest time and resources into their work, expecting their efforts to be respected and valued. When that doesn’t happen, it discourages creativity and innovation and that is very wrong,” he stated.
The Presence singer called for stronger measures to address these concerns and similarly entreated stakeholders, especially players in the gospel industry to come together to promote a culture of respect and integrity.
Amankwah believes in addition to preventing song theft, the industry must create a more supportive and collaborative environment to encourage gospel artistes to share their messages and contributions with the world.