ON his very first solo album titled “All I Need You”, Kojo Antwi has a song which may not have caught much attention when the album was released in 1986. Twenty years on, that song is significant.

The song is titled “Nyame Akye Me Adie” and is clothed in the now-too-familiar heavy up- tempo reggae flow of Kojo Antwi. But the rhythm is not where the song’s significance is

- rather it is in the message.

Nyame Akye me ade
Ose men fa nto ndwom
Ma amanfo enigye
Menfa nto ndwom
Ma amanfo afutu
Dadaa mpae a mebo
Ne Se Egya Nyame
Meye abofra
Nti suo me nsa na
Kyere me kwan.

When it comes to poetry, translation into English does not come easily but generally in this song Kojo is acknowledging the gift of music that God has given him to sing for the benefit of mankind and goes on to pray that God gives him the direction he should go.

If for twenty solid years, an artiste has been as successful as Kojo has been who would begrudge him for throwing a grand party to celebrate?
Although Kojo Antwi’s December 24th Night concerts have been going for 14 years, the forthcoming one is especially significant both for him and for patrons.
“I am happy to have been able to contribute something modest to music in Ghana. I think that for a solo artiste to be up and kicking for 20 years, I feel blessed that I am able to do what I love doing most,” he told Showbiz last Monday.

The ‘something’ that Kojo Antwi says he has contributed to music in Ghana should definitely include the fact that he has been attempting to portray the romantic side of Ghanaian men.

“Most Ghanaian men appear too hard and un-feeling”, the ladies have been heard to say. If for nothing Kojo has, through his music, succeeded in articulating the feelings of men which ordinarily they have been too coy or macho - or both, to express. Akonoba, Groovy, Hini Me, Me Nko Medo, Menya Nta ban
Medofo Pa, Odo Mayea, and Rocklyn are all songs which attest to that.
But it is the ladies who seem to have enjoyed Kojo the most because as one lady fan said, “He speaks for us”. Meto Nko, Me Ndadaa Me, Bo Me Nkomo De, Dadie Anoma, Makoma Doctor are examples of songs that have seen the ladies flock in their numbers to the 24th Night party

This 24th, it will not be any different except perhaps the feeling will be much greater. The “Celebrating the Maestro” concert at the refurbished National Theatre will be a festival celebrating two decades of indigenous ingenuity.

A sneak preview of the artiste line-up show that two of Africa’s most renowned musicians - one from Guinea and another from Cote d’lvoire will partner a select list of Ghanaian heavy weights to celebrate Kojo.

Mory Kante, the talented griot from Guinea was the first African artist to sell a million singles with Yeke Yeke which topped the European charts in 1988 and Aicha Kone from Cote d’Ivoire is undoubtedly one of the most respected singers on the continent. Stay tuned.