I charge 150,000 Ghana cedis per show - Shatta Wale

Dancehall artiste Shatta Wale is making quite a lot of money.

In an interview with Bola Ray on Starr Chat on Starr 103.5 FM Wednesday evening, the ‘Mahama Paper’ act disclosed that he charges 150, 000 per event.

“…the least amount is GHC 150, ooo. When it’s students I try to charge moderate, let’s say 60, oooo. ”

Wale also shared his thoughts on celebrities endorsing political parties, the Ghanaian music industry amongst other issues during the interview.

Some three years ago, Dancehall artiste Bandana re-emerged on the Ghanaian music scene after about a 10-year ‘disappearance’ with a new name.

The artiste who was popular for the song ‘Moko Hoo’ wanted to be known as and called Shatta Wale.

His ‘second coming’ happened as a result of him losing out on a Dancehall category award to Kaakie at the 2013 Ghana Music Awards. Backstage, he called the winning artiste and the organizers all sorts of derogatory and unprintable words, that act as bad as it was, happened to be his ‘breakthrough’ moment.

He also recorded videos in which he called CharterHouse and its CEO names, leading to the former being sued.

In a new interview with MTV.CO.UK, Wale spoke about why he decided to change his name from Bandana to his current moniker.

“Well, it was rebranding… I wanted to explore more into the world. I wanted to make my songs known by the bigger markets, and as a dancehall artist I thought that the name Bandana was a bit local for the international market. Because we all know what Bandana is, but I had a different meaning for it. Later on I decided to get a name that will at least cause news, the only name that could do that was Shatta.”

He also claims the decision has been financially rewarding.

“But most Nigerians think that I’m Nigerian because of it. It’s good as a marketing strategy as well because anytime I go to Nigeria, people always ask me if I’m from there and I’m like ‘No’. They have a different meaning for Wale, so I just felt let me add the Wale to the Shatta and see how it goes and I think it has really worked. It’s an African ting.”