Akwaboah, a Ghanaian Highlife artiste, claims to be the beacon of highlife music in Ghana, citing the genre as the foundational source of all Ghanaian songs.
All Ghanaian songs, he believes, are derived from the highlife sound, and he sees himself as a beacon attracting others to highlife music.
Akwaboah discussed the inspiration behind his “Lighthouse” album on TV3’s Showbiz 360.
He stated that he wanted to highlight the beauty and difficulty of highlife music, which involves live instrumentation and requires precision and skill.
He went on to say that he wanted to point people to Ghana’s highlife genre and encourage other artists to draw inspiration from it.
“I feel I’m the highlife lighthouse of Ghana music. Because bottom line is, that every song we are doing now is derived from high life. So this is me trying to tell everybody that I am the lighthouse to Ghana music. Whether they like it or not,” he noted.
“I just need people to understand that Highlife is the core of everything that we’re doing. So you can do anything that you want to do. But pick it from your source, which is the high life here
So Lighthouse is me directing people to the high-life thing that we’re doing here in Ghana. So every song you hear out there, it’s somewhat live, like, instrumentation-wise, because, you know, way back, they used to do everything live,” he said.
Highlife music originated in West Africa, particularly Ghana, in the nineteenth century.
African rhythms and melodies are blended with Western instruments and jazz influences. It is typically uplifting, danceable, and expressive. Highlife music is widely popular in Ghana and other West African countries, as well as throughout the diaspora.
