The Gospel Music Scorecard for 2022; A Round Table Conversation with Industry Experts

Nigerian gospel music stayed in its dominating rise this year as 2022 witnessed artistes and musicians peaking levels beyond the African region.

Gospel music ministers like Ty Bello, Dunsin Oyekan, Limoblaze, and Pastor Nathaniel Bassey released mind-blowing albums and headlined life transforming concerts. The growth was evident and of course major events that affected the culture like the loss of one of the gospel music legend, Late Sammie Okposo.

All of this and more form the basis of the conversation i had with industry experts and music professionals ranging from Music promoter till producers and even musicians.

The conversation is an assessment of the growth of Gospel music in 2022 and what we need to work on. I had a chat with Sunny Unachi aka Music boss (Music Promoter, Media personality, Event organizer and blogger), Babatope  (Radio Personality, Music Director, Singer and Music manager), Timibeats (Producer, Multi-talented instrumentalist and music director) and Jeduthuna Adesina (Professional Drummer, singer and song writer).

Enjoy as you read;

2022 was a fantastic year no doubt and for the gospel music industry also but in your view, how would you rate the growth of Gospel music from 2021 till now?

Sunday Unachi: Gospel music has continued to grow year in year out, we’ve seen a lot of growth from both the A-list artiste and emerging artiste. You get to see the A-list artiste trying to improve in their craft, trying to do better than they did the previous year, although some may not be as active as it were but in the year 2022 we’ve seen a lot of improvements. However, I would want to put an example, though an unfortunate thing happened, Sammie Okposo has always been on top of the game, anytime Sammie is releasing a song he does it like it’s his first song ever. That for me is something i think everyone needs to emulate, he was always there doing what he has to do. Unfortunately, he passed on this year as well, that is a big loss to the gospel music industry in 2022 and the memory of his impact is going to last for a long time and i don’t know who is going to fit into his shoe.

So yeah, a lot of creatives really did pretty well in 2022 in terms of their visual creation, audio production, and all of that but in other areas I do not think that they were able to cover fully as it were in the year 2022. However, there is a whole lot of improvement compared to 2021 and you know that 2021 we’re just coming in from the Covid, so there was a lot of pressure, everybody is trying to outdo one another but this time the atmosphere is balanced, you get to see who is doing well and who is not doing well and every year i look out for new artiste and what they are coming to the table with and 2022 isn’t an exception. There are a whole lot of them who i think are really bracing up for the year 2023.

BBT: Well, this may sound cliché but the truth of the matter is gospel music in Nigeria has evolved, it’s still evolving because of the different dynamics that musicians or gospel music ministers if you like are coming up with, yes so if I am to rate the growth of gospel music from 2021 till this moment I’m not sure I want to give a percentage in figures or in numbers but I’m going to say gospel music in Nigeria has really grown trust me, we’re at that point right now where our music is globally accepted. Now we are finding people across the oceans wanting to do songs coming from Nigeria, we’re finding people from… I mean doing different versions. A typical example is Sinach’s Way Maker, there are quite a lot of versions of way maker now that people took permission from her to do, Michael W. Smith and a few others, I mean it’s a global anthem now and it’s such a joy to see because there was a time where gospel music ministers or artist in Nigeria we’re really clamoring for that world acceptance, clamoring for those partnerships or collaborations across the oceans but now they are the one asking to want to collaborate with our guys. I mean another typical example is Dunsin Oyekan’s songs, Dunsin Oyekan’s songs right now, you’d find on the lips of quite a few international gospel artist like we call them. I mean you find people doing those songs in their own languages and it’s such a joy to see. Look at the experience see the way Chandler Moore and Travis Greene ran up stage to have that dance moment with Dunsin Oyekan. I was watching the press conference and a question was thrown at Chandler Moore about collaboration, looking at the table he was sitting at and they were asking him who and who would he love to have a collaboration with and he was mentioning names; Dunsin Oyekan, Mercy Chinwo, Pastor Nathaniel Bassey, he’s done that already, and that’s such a joy to see. There was a time we were the ones looking for those collaborations and so it’s amazing to say that our music has grown in production, in vocal delivery, our videos are becoming… i mean people are becoming intentional about the kind of content that they put out, of course there is still a lot of room for more work. I’m trying to not get into that point where I begin to dissect or chastise some gospel artist but overall, my discussion right now is on an overall basis. We’ve really done well for ourselves and that’s such a joy to see, production is becoming top notch both audio and visuals not been seeing those music videos of in the gardens, beside the flowers people are intentional about what they are putting out. We want to say thank you to some critics who have been criticizing some of their jobs, I inclusive and i think we are getting feedbacks that they are putting in the work to put their content on the global stage well standard to stand side-by-side with others. Have we grown? Yes we have between 2021 and now we have really grown.

Our songs… if you check some of the YouTube pages of some of our Nigerian gospel act, you’d see their videos gathering views in millions and that’s amazing. some of our guys who are doing spontaneous worship moments and covers, if you like check their views on TikTok, in millions and the feedbacks that these guys get sometimes I go on their YouTube pages and I’m seeing the feedback people are writing and majority of the people giving those awesome feedbacks are not Africans they are not Nigerians, people from different parts of the world an you would see some of the messages on those platforms asking those guys oh when are you going to be in US, when are you going to be in Canada, we need you here, we need your content, we need your music, we need your ministry and it goes a long way to show and say that we are doing well, otherwise that acceptance would not be there. Right now, gone are those days where you want to put Nigerian gospel music or Nigerian gospel music ministers or artist at the back line, no we can stand shoulder to shoulder, head to head with anyone in the world, room for improvement? Yes, Can it be done better? Yes but with where we used to be and where we are now we have evolved, we are still evolving and we are doing really well. Some of our songs are topping the charts; it is just what it is. I was in the UK with Dunsin Oyekan and the acceptance is crazy, he opens his mouth to sing and people are giving him back his songs and you’re wondering what’s going on here. ‘Thy Kingdom Come Concert’ in London early this year, Pastor Nathaniel Bassey Dunsin Oyekan, Victoria Orenze, the arena was packed full, OVO arena was packed full to the brim. It is what it is, right now, gospel music in Nigeria is now a world standard thing and we can’t be more grateful to God for Grace, for all of them and what God is using them to do.

Timibeats: I would say the growth is more now because I think there are some genres that were lacking before, we were all used to the normal worship, praise and rock genres but now there are some genres that are not necessarily congregational music. The whole Afro, Rap, the contemporary gospel music, that part has increased and grown a lot. That was what has been lacking for a very long while but now people are beginning to see that there is actually more of this and it’s a huge growth.

Jeduthuna: Yeah 2022 has been a fantastic year for gospel music industry, I’d say the growth has been phenomenal right, seeing new artist emerge, the quality of music the quality of content from gospel artist have been really inspiring the standard is being raised every single day, everyone is deliberate about the way their music sounds, the mix, the mastering, videos are crisp, you know clean videos and its across different genres. It’s been really good, really good, there is growth.

 

 

Let’s get to indebt analysis then, one of the major concerns for the gospel music industry has always been funding and collaborations. Let’s start with funding from artist, how much have artist grown into investing into their music/craft?

Sunday Unachi: Well I think when it comes to funding of craft, it’s based on individual perception and what they intend to achieve and two how much they believe in themselves. It also not enough to just invest money on yourself or on your music, if you invest are you willing to drive it, are you willing to push so you can get a return on investment, you know are you also investing rightly. Some people could just invest money and then it’s invested wrongly at the end of the day they get nothing, get discouraged and then they leave the music and find something else to do. I think a lot of artiste have actually grown into understanding that they need to invest in their music to create quality content, however, this investment doesn’t mean that it has to be in zillions of Naira, invest properly and then produce quality content because at the end of the day quality content will live after the creative, yes I think a lot of creatives are actually investing so much and it’s worth applauding them for and I think other investors needs to come to invest because at a point if you keep investing, investing, investing and you are not seeing so much return on your investment, you get tired, so to keep them afloat or to keep them in the industry they need a lot of support, a lot of funding as well from external sources.

BBT: It might not be easy to judge or have a thorough conversation on how much artiste have grown into investing in their own music or craft because i don’t have that personal relationship with all of them to know how they are investing in their craft or in their music and because of the different dynamics, no two artiste are the same in terms of mode of operation, some are under record labels, some are not and for those who are under record labels, if you understand how record labels and all of that work, the investment into that craft or into that music is solely or majorly on the record label and of course the part that concerns the music minister is the singing, the going into the studio to record the songs and being available at the different events where they are invited to deliver exceptionally, of course any other thing aside that i think the record labels are the ones who shoulder those responsibilities when it comes to investing in the craft, in the art and in the music.

For those who are individuals, I want to believe that they are investing in their music or in their craft because if you don’t you are heading for the rocks, you are just going to nose dive because all of this things that we celebrate cost money, the recordings, audios or visuals, the concerts and the branding and all of that, it cost money to get those things done, so I want to believe that they are really investing and that’s why we are still seeing all that we are seeing in terms of content being released to the world. Except you have personal relationship with them, you will not be able to say in details how much of investment they personally put into it, for some people they have project sponsors, for some they have investors who just believe in their music in their craft and want to say ‘ok you know what let’s do some partnership, let me invest’ and for an investment to have taken place, conversations would have gone on what happens to the return on investment. It’s just what it is, except I have a personal relationship with them and I have details of what goes into the investment in their craft and how they go about that, I won’t be able to discuss the growth of personal or individual investment into their crafts or their music but of course for we to see content being delivered there’s been some investment in cash, in craft, time, energy, rehearsing, producing, singing and doing all of that.

Timibeats: I feel like this is one of the most asked question from every upcoming creative, how to get funding, how to get people to support your music and everything and to be honest it’s not really that easy but it’s also easy and most people are waiting for their angel to come and give them funding, their angel to come in form of Don Jazzy or whoever is the big guy to come and help them, but the reality is that in as much as those people are actually cool and then they are trying to help as much as possible but not everyone can be helped by them, there are some people that will actually grow themselves to the top but most people are too lazy to be that kind of person, they want it easy. For gospel it much more difficult to be frank, in the circular world we have a lot of sponsors, we have people that are looking for talent, if you have talent, skill, dedication it’s easier to make it in the circular world than in the gospel world. For gospel I believe that we have a superior life to them but we still have to help one another. People are after the money which is not wrong but we also have to help one another.

Collaborations are super important in music and it’s more dynamic in the gospel music scene for various reasons and one of such reasons is a lot of people are careful and sensitive (spiritually) about people they collaborate with. How would you access the rate and strength of collaboration in the gospel music industry?

BBT: Collaboration, that’s not something that happens easily if you’d ask me because of the sensitivity of that kind of thing, like you rightly put it, the dynamics are there, some are really sensitive to the spiritual connections that they have with the person who is proposing this collaboration, some others may not bother about that, they just hear the song, like the song, they feel privileged to have been called upon to collaborate, some may see as an avenue to sell themselves while some others are really particular about the spiritual connection they have with the person, with the song, with the person’s kind of ministry before they want to accept the invitation to collaborate. So rating the strength of collaboration in the gospel music industry right now, I think there’s been a lot of collaborations here and there and that’s absolutely fantastic to see but it is what it is, for me those who can collaborate would always do, those who are not ready to go in that route, there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Overall, I think there’s been an increase in togetherness and in the gospel music scene and collaborations are increasing by the day.

For me accessing it, I can’t give figures or percentage but I think it’s better than what it used to be, what we may be hoping to see in the coming year is collaborations between the ones who are already established or the A-list artiste like we call them in the media space and the up and coming, the younger generation. Most of the collaborations that you may find around are amongst the A-list, let’s hope to see more collaborations between the A-listers and the up and coming.

Sunny Unachi: When it comes to collaboration I think there’s still much to be done so far, sighting different issues as it regards collaboration. I’ll start by saying that we should not hide under the guise of spirituality or religion to be lazy and creativity goes beyond all of these things that we try to put together and if you are in the creative space, I think you need to really put yourself out there. The question would be what do you want to achieve with that collaboration, do you just want to collaborate because the person is a big-name, what influence is the person bringing into this collaborative effort and most times the problem is not even the idea of the spiritual connotations attached to collaborations. Many people get to collaborate and then they do not even share the songs they are featured in, why? Because a lot of things are wrong. For collaborations it means that you are either a co-writer or you co-own. You can co-own a project, don’t just feature in it, co-own it because we are a growing industry meaning that you were featured either to bring in your vocal prowess or to bring in your influence or whatever it is as it were just to make sure that the content gets some kind of mileage. Maybe a young artiste featuring an established artiste, the young artiste wants to ride on the fan base of the establish artiste, we all know all of this jargons, but the thing is, has this been effective? Both parties involved, have they been able to achieve what they ought to achieve beyond all the underlining factors? No, we can do more. An emerging artiste can feature an A-lister and then all he does is either post once or don’t even post at all so I think this is still a major problem and i put it out there to a lot of people that the social media you are trying to guard jealously can be taken away from you, there are a lot of people whose account has been hacked or whose account has been lost. If you cannot use the platforms that you have, which i think is also part of the collaboration, then you are not doing pretty well with it. In the long run we need to shift from just spiritualizing this thing and understanding that you are in a creative industry and you need to make the most of what is required in a creative space. So when you are asked to feature on a song or to collaborate, then make the most of it, go out of your way to make sure that the project is a success, if that project is not successful it means your influence and whatever capacity or whatever it is you operate on didn’t bring any relevance to that content. So you need to go out of your own zone and make sure that whatever it is you’re coming in to do, the person who is featuring you sees the value that you’re bringing, so it is all about value. We need to build a lot of synergy when it comes to collaboration in the industry. A whole lot more needs to be done , a whole lot of bureaucracies need to be broken up, a whole lot of walls needs to be broken down for people to be able to easily and effectively collaborate in the coming year as we haven’t done so much when it comes to collaboration and all of that. Also, before you feature people there must be some sort of synergy that both of you have, either the person likes your music or you like the persons music or there is an existing friendship, relationship and all of that. You don’t just wake up one day and say you want to feature someone because you could see the person has a name and all of that, I think it’s a process and that process should never be ignored. Follow through the process so you can get the best of the reason for the collaboration.

Timibeats: Its very sensitive, people are very sensitive about people they collaborate with it because for us it’s more about the messages that we pass, they have to tell similar messages or one that goes hand in hand. For collaborations, there’s something i always say to people is that when you collaborate with someone else you are carrying your music to their fans, so you are introducing yourself to them. Collaboration is actually very important especially to the guys that are coming up its important that you are able to build relationship with each other and then do it together, join heads, join spirits and make it work.

Jeduthuna: Collaborations have been really amazing this year and I think this year there has been a lot of that. Nathaniel Bassey’s album, TY Bello’s album, that was like full fledged collaboration, Nathaniel Bassey had a Lady from South Africa, he also had Ada Ehi, Mr M & Revelation, Ty Bello had Greatman, Nosa, 121 Selah, Folabi Nuel and other gospel artiste. You’d see that people that feature other people have synergy; no one is drawing the other back. Pastor Iren as well featured a lot of people on his album as well and that album is a fantastic one. I think collaboration amongst gospel artiste has been amazing and we need to see more of that.

We have few days before 2023, what are the certain things we need to strengthen/work on or fix in the gospel music industry?

Timibeats: For the gospel industry, I feel like one of the most important thing that we are supposed to be working on is our social media, pushing ourselves out, it’s a lot better now but we can do better than that. Social media is the main thing that’s happening now, we cannot slow down now and say social media is for people of the world, it is not, social media is for everyone and we should take advantage of it and make sure that we are the first. For me that’s the one thing we need to stretch in we  have the skill, we have the talent, we have the money, we have the spirit it’s just to push it out there and now people do not preach on the street they preach online.

BBT: I think we need to keep being more intentional. now that we know that we’ve been accepted the world over, our contents are been accepted on the global stage it’s not a time to relax, its snot a time to relent, it’s not a time to feel like we have arrived, it’s a time to keep working to be able to maintain the stand on the global stage. Exceptional content delivery, exceptional content production and all of that needs to keep being the focus. The thing for me is everyone has what God has said to them, everyone’s vision is different, of course the ultimate, the focal point or  the centerpiece is Jesus and should still be Jesus but how for everyone the mission cannot be the same, the vision cannot be the same so I’ll just say everyone should keep working in accordance with the vision and the mission statement as received by God and remember that at the end of the day it’s still one body and lets work more on eradicating division, let denominations not scatter us. I mean for me I think the unity in the body of Christ right now is being propelled or pushed forward by gospel music ministers I mean I stand to be corrected but I think there’s a lot more relationship between gospel music ministers than there is between pastors of the different denominations or churches if I may I can also say that the relationship between the gospel music ministers in the different denominations are beginning to bring about the relationship between their pastors as well and it’s a good thing to see. So we need to foster more relationship, let’s do things as one body, support one another, invest what comes from your music as returns in terms of money and all of that. It’s good to invest, I’m not sure if a lot of gospel music ministers are looking in that direction yet. If anything, Covid should have taught us a big lesson when they were no invitation except a few who got virtual invitations, where those who depended on that money weren’t getting it, right now that we’re back to live event when the money is coming it’s a great time to invest, invest in shares, other businesses except of course you have clear instructions not to do that, it’s something everyone should look into. Let’s also pay more attention to excellence, if you have to consult before you do your stuff, consult. Gospel artiste should go away from that point where they think they are all knowing, you are not God. There are certain things that are not your niche call experts, if you have to pay for it, pay for it to get that excellence. Let script writers write scripts for your videos for you, let cinematographers advise you on how to go about it and get project managers to handle your project; don’t try to want to do everything by yourself especially when it’s not your area of expertise. If we put all of that in focus I think we’d be looking at a better 2023 in terms of gospel music in Nigeria. Let’s hope to see lots of mentorship from the established music ministers to the up and coming and let’s hope that the up-and-coming are willing to be taught let’s hope that they will be teachable to receive this mentoring and all of that because it’s a two way street.

Sunny Unachi: Yes it’s been a fantastic ride in 2022, yes a whole lot has happened and amazing releases from when the year started up until this very moment, it’s been an amazing year. There’s a whole lot to work on in the industry, the first thing is we need to understand that act is act, regardless of whether you are in the gospel or in the secular as it were. If you are a creative, you are a creative; the only thing that makes a difference is the content of your creation, which is your lyrical content as it were. We need to understand that there’s so much that can be achieved, and the only this can be achieved is when we build a structure and the structure is all encompassing, it’s not just a one way thing. You need to understand the business part if you believe there should be a business, because honestly I think everyone just believes that there is a business but the thing is we spiritualize it, everyone want to make money whether you like it or not but we try to spiritualize it. That’s why people don’t want to talk about the industry because when there is an industry, then there are industry standards that must be followed. So if we have to follow the industry standards then we have to do it the way it ought to be done. We haven’t been doing this, not just in 2020, there’s a lack of education in the gospel music industry, there’s a lack of collaborative effort, there’s a lack of synergy, you know everyone wants to do his thing and at the end of the day we go round the same circle. I think moving forward we need to understand the strength of each person and what everyone is bringing to the table, be there for one another and support as much as we can support. Build more platforms, it doesn’t necessarily have to be church events that we’re all looking forward to, show promoter should come up with events, let’s put things  and come out as well, you don’t have to be singing at the event before you can turn up, you should be willing to turn up whenever events are organized. Let’s come out together and support one another. I think this is a very important thing if we could consider that moving forward in 2023. There’s also a lot of fackos and hates, underlining hates, they might not say it openly but there are a lot of underlining hates that needs to be properly dealt with, we don’t truly express the God kind of love, we need to begin to love more; of course there are industry beefs as it were, all those industry issues but we are Christians, we must put God first and live the God kind of life, express the God kind of love, very important factor as we move into the year 2023.

Finally, what are your top 5 songs released in 2022?

Sunny Unachi: (Smiles) 5 Songs in a whole year, that’s not possible hehehe. I have a lot of songs on my playlist so I rather not mention. Big ups to all the artiste creating great contents. And to all the artiste I worked with lets do more in 2023.

Timibeats: For my favorite songs I really cannot say, but my number one song is Rise Up by Timi and Elna, yes that’s my number one but the rest… I actually do listen to a whole lot of songs so I cannot really pick my top five, I really cannot pick my top five, only top one and I have already said it.

BBT: When God Walks in (Dunsin Oyekan), Kaabo (Dunsin Oyekan), Those who will win (Dunsin Oyekan), See What the Lord has done (Nathaniel Bassey), Adonai (Nathaniel Bassey).

 

This conversation was an insightful and well detailed conversation and our huge gratitude goes to the guests for answering our call for this. I trust that a lot of gospel music enthusiasts and stakeholders take necessary steps to improve and innovate so we grow as a body in the gospel music industry.

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