Ghameli

Universal Music Group-signed Ghanaian artistes, Stonebwoy and Cina Soul have been urged to work closely with the world’s biggest music label to achieve their goals. Joe Chialo, Senior Vice President, A & R, Universal Music Central Europe & Africa told Showbiz in an exclusive interview, the artistes need to take advantage of the influence and reach the label has. The ‘Most Original’ and ‘Awo’ acts were officially introduced as new additions to the label on July 17 this year during an event to launch Universal Music Nigeria to manage operations of the label in West Africa. “We’re living in a time of a lot of collaborations so Universal has this power to enable artistes to come together. Universal has the power to approach producers. Universal has also the power to create a long term plan so I would really urge them not only to think from record to record but really to sit down and look at all the revenue streams and all the journey as an artiste that they want to tak...

In April 2018, news broke that Ghanaian singer Cina Soul signed a record deal with the world’s largest music company Universal Music, becoming the first Ghana-based artist to join the label. The announcement came with the release of the singer's first single on the label, ‘12:01’, a collaboration with Nigerian producer Pheelz. While her growing fanbase cheered her on, the signing wasn't heralded with much fanfare with only a few blogs reporting it. There was hardly any mention in mainstream media. And so among those in the industry, the questions soon followed. How does a non-mainstream artist get an international signing? What signals does this send to other artists? “ I think it is important for every artist to understand themselves, understand their craft and stick to that. And that’s one thing we can all learn from Cina Soul’s success,” says Antoine Mensah; a radio and television presenter and one of the brains behind Aftown, a Ghanaian music streaming service. ...