Gospel shows of collective effort

It is unusual to find one artist as a poster performer at a gospel show nowadays. The line up of musicians at gospel shows can have more than 15 artists who are usually the same faces that supported a friend’s show the previous week and another two weeks before.

The monotony that comes with such an arrangement has led to sub-standard performances. Even artists whose music was poorly produced ride on the back of other successful artists to market their shoddy work.

Such marketing drive works. But do gospel show patrons get value for their money?

In an interview with Society, gospel musician Patience Namadingo said the gospel music industry lacks the spirit of secular music where a single artist can single-handedly hold show.

“Because secular artists hold shows as individuals or a single band, they strive to perfect their performance while in gospel, some artists do a mediocre job hoping to ride on the backs of the big names,” said Namadingo.

However, the Mtendere hit maker said most venues that gospel artists use are bigger than the ones that secular musicians regularly use; hence, the need to have marketing strategies to fill up the venues.

“Secular artists mostly use venues such as clubs or bars but for us it is Comesa, Robins Park and ICA Marquee. They are all big venues,” he said.

Namadingo said gospel shows sometimes attract many artists because they are affordable.

“Another thing is that gospel musicians are affordable than secular musicians. That is why one show can have more than two big names,” said Namadingo.

King James Phiri agrees with Namadingo that having many artists at one show sometimes negatively affects performance of the artists.

“Our colleagues from secular industry are very confident. You can find Lucius Banda having his own show or Lulu performing without support from others.

“Sometimes the arrangement does not give much exposure to the owner of the show because the headliner might just perform a maximum of four songs because there are other artists that have to perform,” said King James.

He defended the gospel music fraternity, saying their fans have always been supportive of shows as the patronage has always been impressive.

“The one who determines how many people will come to a show is the headliner. But sometimes it is not good for an artist to be making an appearance at every show because people do not miss you,” says King James.

Another gospel artist, Faith Mussa, said the success of an artist should be measured by the number of musicians performing at one’s show.

“One might not work hard hoping that during his launch or his shows he will be inviting the big names. And that is not good enough,” said Faith.

He added that unlike secular musicians, most gospel artists only have one popular song which they can perform to the audience.

“The audience is also behind this because when you play a song that audience does not know they always ask for that which they know and it feels bad to be performing one song,” said the Desperate hit maker.

He argued that there are some venues where a gospel artist can host a solo performance.

“I and Lawi have performed together or as solo artists at Capital Hotel and other high profile venues and it turned just fine,” said Faith.