Ghanaian highlife and afrobeat musician, Kuami Eugene, has advised 13-year old comedienne and TV personality Araba Atta to focus on her schooling till she is of the right age to be able to better monetize the job of being a musician.
During an interview with DJ Advicer on Hapy98.9FM’s Ayekoo After Drive show, Araba expressed interest in becoming a musician, saying that she has a song which is yet to be recorded and she requested to have Kuami Eugene feature on the song.
Eugene, in reply to this, stated that featuring on her song is not something that cannot be arranged, however, from his experience, he believes that the young talent has about four or five more years to go before she can make it big in the music industry.
He explained, “You need to be prepped for what you’re doing. This work that we do is not easy and it’s not a child’s work. Here, it is not like in other countries. Outside, when a child blows, what they do is look for lots of endorsement deals for them. Out there, just a little popularity is money.
In Ghana, what happens is when you blow at a very young age like this, we don’t have a lot of brands here that will come to pay you to continue what you’re doing so firstly, you’ll end up depending on somebody”.
He also opined that the kind of money that will come out from a project like Araba Atta as a musician at this age, will not generate enough money no matter how hard her managers go and the only income they will be making is from Youtube.
Kuami Eugene continued, “How many brands do you think will call on Araba Atta to promote their products? If it’s a phone brand, they know that there are only a few children her age who use mobile phones. She can’t promote an alcoholic brand either. Also, if you think about it, how many show organizers will call Araba Atta to come and perform? S-Concert? Ghana’s Most Beautiful?”
Eugene advised that Araba can venture into music and with her amazing talent, do very well at it but due to some disadvantages that come with her age, they will be spending but they won’t be getting back as much as they invest in profits. In accordance with this, he noted that making a collaboration with Araba Atta is not a problem but it would be better if she waits till she is old enough to monetize it better.
By: Maureen Dedei Quaye