Ghana’s Wiyaala and Atongo Zimba have been named as part of the “The Global 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.
Wiyaala’s Village Sex and Atongo’s No Beer in Heaven took the 419 and 316 positions respectively.
The list was compiled after two years of research by Alan Tigay, a seasoned author and music reviewer.
Wiyaala announced the good news in a Facebook post recently when she wrote, “GHANA IS IN!
THE GLOBAL 500 GREATEST SONGS OF ALL TIME: Atongo Zimba’s No Beer In Heaven at No: 316. Wiyaala’s Village Sex at No: 419
The list was compiled by ‘World Listening Post’ managed by respected author Alan M. Tigay.
Tigay argues that the “list reflects global reality” not confiding itself to “a few genres,” and “just the past few years” and most certainly goes beyond songs performed in the English language as authors of such lists often, regrettably, fail to do.
However, the “inclusive list,” he conceded, is “not definitive” by any stretch of the imagination.
“If I can offer one insight it would be that the most one can hope for is a list that is impressionistic. In two years of research I have concluded that there must be at least 10,000 songs that merit inclusion in a roster of the 500 best,” he revealed.
The Global 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list, included songs by legends like the The West’s Bob Dylan, Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, Leonard Cohen, and Edith Piaf; Africa’s Fela Kuti, Angelique Kidjo, Papa Wemba, Salif Keita, and Miriam Makeba; Asia’s Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bhosle, and Teresa Teng; and Middle East’s Ofra Haza, and Googoosh, among others.
The duo of Wiyaala and have carved a strong niche with their style of music, mostly getting huge following from outside Ghana.