Mark Okraku-Mantey, Deputy Minister-designate of Tourism, Arts & Culture
• Okraku Mantey urges Ghanaian musicians to sit-up
• The deputy minister disagrees with the assertion that the showbiz industry has collapsed
• Okraku Mantey gives tips for longevity in the entertainment indusrty
Deputy Creative Arts Minister, Mark Okraku Mantey, has condemned the widespread perceptions by most creative arts stakeholders that the Ghanaian entertainment industry is dead.
Mr Okraku Mantey said musicians, in particular, should work at re-inventing themselves to fit into the current age instead of wasting time on unnecessary complaints.
He said when artistes arrive at a certain stage in their lives, it is normal for their career to take a nosedive.
Buttressing his point, the deputy creative arts minister said with the Ghanaian showbiz structure, only a few musicians have had the opportunity to last for 20 years and beyond.
“When you become a hitmaker or you are successful in a particular time, it is a few who can last for 20 to 30 years. Majority of the people [last for a] maximum of 10 years, so, you must re-engineer yourself and re-invent yourself. But people want to do the same thing and so when they’re getting outmoded, then they start saying that the industry is dead,” he stated in a discussion with Hitz FM’s Andy Dosty.
Reacting to calls for the construction of entertainment structures across the country to boost revenue generation, Mr. Okraku Mantey said;
“When I was producing years ago, the structures were less but some of us made money. How come that during that time that the structures were less, people made money; Despite, Kojo Antwi, and Daddy Lumba made money because the culture was good.”
“So if we want to have an environment that will ‘vomit’ or grow money, the culture of the industry, [where for instance], this one insults that person must change,” he added.