Musician Noble Nketsiah has unequivocally said colleague Joe Mettle is indeed the only Ghanaian gospel artiste who can represent the country internationally.
The gospel space has for some days now been heated following some comments passed by radio presenter OB Nartey and UK-based event promoter DJ Alordia. Both had argued on Onua FM that Joe Mettle has a huge audience appeal abroad due to the quality of his productions.
For Alordia, language has always been a factor hence, any time he organized an event with Ghanaian gospel musicians as performers, he struggled to break even. According to him, he did so on three occasions and the narrative was same.
He mentioned that patrons were mainly Ghanaians who understood the language, stressing that he did not get other nationals like Nigerians and South Africans attending. Citing Nigerian gospel musicians who use the pidgin language in most of their songs, Alordia said the diversity attracts lots of people from other countries in UK.
He, however singled out Joe mettle, who uses the English language in some of his works.
His submission triggered a response from Patience Nyarko who was in the studio. She could not fathom why Joe Mettle would be rated above others who write their songs.
“Joe Mettle is not where people want us to believe he is. The way people want to lift him above all of us, they will give him problem. He is not yet there. People want us to believe he is better than all of us gospel musicians in Ghana,” Patience Nyarko retorted.
“Apart from Joe Mettle singing Pentecost and Methodist songs, how many English songs has he composed and you want to disrespect some of us that write our own songs.”
Speaking on 3FM’s Showbiz927 monitored by GhanaWeb, Noble Nketsiah said it is true Joe Mettle has chalked that success.
“It’s a fact. Yes, it’s true. In terms of streams and all that, currently, he is the artiste with most streams across the world so that’s a fact. Not per song; when you talk about collective tracks, Joe Mettle is [ahead]” he corroborated.
On whether Patience Nyarko’s ‘hymn’ argument is relevant, Noble Nketsiah said he sees nothing wrong with his colleague excelling with songs he did not compose.
He said: “Do you candidly think that if people do not appreciate what he does, he will do what he is doing? There is a song he did, it’s one of the hymns; I never appreciated that hymn until he did that song. What it means is that, he’s renewed the song for me and as an individual, it’s blessing me. If what he’s doing is good, if it’s a good content, it doesn’t matter if it’s a hymn or not. If what he’s doing is getting him the recognition, who am I to say what he’s doing is wrong?”
Noble Nketsiah however called for calm in the wake of the insults some persons have hurled at Patience Nyarko.
“It’s wrong to chastise her for whatever she says,” he said but was quick to add that “I also think that the radio or the public is not the place for her to spill her issues.”
Source: Ghanaweb.com
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