Nana Kontihene ? From ?Akatasia? to ?Awia?

Kontihene There is no gainsaying the fact that Akatasia is a song that will go down the history of music in Ghana as one of the very best. If for nothing it will be remembered as a song that won the Song of the Year in the 2003 Ghana Music Awards from a relatively unknown artiste at the time.

Indeed, that artiste, Nana Appiah a.k.a. Kontihene was also the Artiste of the Year or that year. Need one say more, Kontihene is a creative musician who has lived up to his word by coming out with three albums within a span of three years.

His latest album titled ?Awia? (it means the sun although there is no song on the album with such a title) has a total of eight songs, some of them very interesting to listen.

There is ?Esi? which would pass for the most popular song on the album because of the tremendous airplay it has received since the collection was released a few weeks ago.

One thing that would strike the listener on this song is the sweet voice of the vocalist Kwabena Kwabena whose rendition of the chorus show him as one who has a great potential to grow in the singing department of a rap genre called hiplife.

Another song on the album that comes across as a very beautiful piece of work though it has received less airplay than ?Esi? is ?African Mama?. It is song on which Kontihene tries something at afro beat music.

One might take it they are listening to something from Fela?s type of music if one was not told that the singer is Ghana?s Kontihene.

There have been accusing fingers pointed at hiplife artistes for their usage of computerised instrumentation in place of traditional African instruments, perhaps this is a step (and no doubt one in the right direction) taken by Kontihene to address the issue.

This song features King Ayesoba (the same Ayesoba who brought to national prominence by the late Terry Bonchaka) who comes in with his unique instrument voice.

Maybe he had an idea to satisfy different age groups on this album because Kontihene seemed to have different genres of music on the album. For instance there is ?Eku Gyea? song rendered in the highlife style.

A wide array of people are featured on this album. They include Kwabena Kwabena, Ayesoba, Maabena, Yvonne (Shee), Claudia, Phat, Yaw Labito, King Williams, Kwame Nkrumah, Jonny Fingers, Agyingo, Magdalene, Opaninpa, Obazz, 2-Sure, Tina, Onyame and Atta.

The third outing of Kontihene was recorded at the Hush Hush Studios with engineering work done by J.Q.