Women have, since time immemorial, been facing many challenges in all facet of our socio-economic life, particularly in Politics, Business, Sports and Arts.
These challenges have lingered on as a result of the disunity or the lack of togetherness among the women. And the Art or Entertainment industry is where this disunity is very much manifested here in Ghana.
Although the Ghanaian Movie Industry is relatively enjoying some level of togetherness in terms of feminine collaborations, the Music Industry is, however, yet to receive its fair share of the all-female collaborations.
An all-female music collaborations, the world over, is very rare as It's believed that most female artists shy away from doing songs with each other because of sheer envy, and the risk of being outshone in ones own music.
However, Beyonce and Nicky Minaj's "flawless" remix, Lady Gaga and Beyonce's "Telephone", Whitney Houston and Maria Carey's "when you believe", Rihanna and Britney Spear's "S&M", Ariana Grande and Azalea’s “Problem†etc, have respectively corrected the misconception that when two powerful and egotistical women stand side-by-side to one another, it's simply a hairpulling contest waiting to happen.
In fact the year 2014 was referred to by music critiques as the year of the all-female collaborations in the U.S.A.
This girl-on-girl collaborations was again demonstrated in Nigeria in 2015 when three of the country's hottest fast-rising artists, Cynthia Morgan, Victoria Kimani and Emma Nyra teamed up to produce their "Vex" hit song.
Apparently, the situation here in Ghana is pretty much disappointing as the Female circular artists are yet to bury their egos and pick up the phone to team up with their colleagues to give music lovers their version of the mouth-watering girl-on-girl collaborations happening across the world.
Ghana is blessed with many talented female circular artists, but these artists have, over the years, portrayed a sense of singularity and isolation in their music careers. In other words, they have not been collaborating with themselves.
And even when there have been such collaborations, the songs have become average hit songs. A typical example is the Mzvee, Efya "abrofra" collaboration released in 2015.
And so, the question most music watchers in Ghana often ask is; why are the top female musicians finding it difficult to collaborate with one another:Is it a case of hatred or that of an ego?
Efya and Becca are two of Ghana's top female artists, but the duo have surprisingly or disappointedly failed to hit the studios together to give the nation one of its biggest music collaborations. Ironically, both Efya and Becca are self-proclaimed feminists, but the two are yet to practically demonstrate that in terms of support for one another, relative to music collaborations.
Even if these two don't want to feature one another in their songs, what stops them from crossing borders to Nigeria to collaborate with some of the big female artists there?
An Efya and Tiwa Savage or a Becca and Yemi Alade collaborations would definitely be a big hit across Africa. Likewise a Mzvee and Cynthia Morgan or a KaKi and Victoria Kimani, or even a Mzvee, kaki and Ebony collaboration.
2017 is still very young and has so much room for surprises, and so I would like to urge the Female musicians in Ghana to eschew their egos, the needles competition with one another and the jealousness, and then team up to surprise the country with record breaking collaborations.
By Begulube Moro Salifu.
Email: Bagulybaymoro@gmail.com
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