Gospel singer Philipa Baafi says one of her biggest hits never paid her. In an interview on Joy Prime’s Prime Morning show, published on Thursday, 12 November, she said that although the song “was a hit everywhere”, she “didn’t get a penny from the song”. Adomonline reported that she was talking about Mogya No Akasa.
“Nothing,” she repeated when the host asked her to confirm, in the interview posted on Joy Prime’s YouTube channel. She said the song’s success made everyone assume she was rich, and that she went through a lot in the years that followed.
“I just wanted to stay pure”
Philipa Baafi also spoke about the pressure she faced early in her career. As a young singer, she said, people who offered to produce her songs often had conditions. “Whenever anybody comes to do your song for you or produce it, one thing that you will hear is that ‘at least we can go out so that I can do it for you’,” she said.
She did not name anyone. She said she turned those offers down because “I just wanted to stay pure and do what God has ordained me to do”, and added that her second and third albums came with a lot of challenges as a result. Through prayer, she said, she did not give up.
27 years on, still going
Philipa Baafi released her first album in 1999, and she said it was her fourth album that finally brought her into the limelight. Away from music, she told Joy Prime, she works as a physician assistant.
She is now promoting her new single, Enko Akyiri, and announced the Go High Campus Tour, which will take mentorship sessions and gospel shows to high schools and tertiary institutions.
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