Renowned Highlife musician and MUSIGA President, Bessa Simons, has raised an alarm over an existential crisis for Highlife music in Ghana. Once the heartbeat of the nation’s sound, the genre is now losing its footing among younger generations who increasingly lean toward Afrobeats and Amapiano.
Speaking in an interview with Graphic Showbiz, Simons lamented the fading appreciation for Highlife’s signature rhythms and narratives.
“Highlife should be getting special attention. We have to work hard to make the youth believe in it again,” he said, stressing that negative perceptions of veteran Highlife musicians have only deepened the genre’s decline.
According to Simons, today’s music may carry subtle traces of Highlife, but the essential elements that gave the sound its emotional depth are missing.
“The problem is that the new songs lack the core ingredients that gave traditional Highlife its soul,” he noted.
The MUSIGA President also admitted that part of the problem stems from within the genre, placing some responsibility on himself and other pioneers for stepping back too early. “The older guys stopped recording too early — and I include myself in that,” he confessed. “If we had continued releasing music, there would be more authentic Highlife around for the younger generation to learn from.”
Simons acknowledged that some work is being done to revive the genre but insisted that more is needed at both the industry and national levels, including better documentation, education, and technological integration.
“If we don’t act now, we risk losing one of our richest cultural legacies,” he warned, urging all stakeholders to help restore Highlife to its rightful place in Ghana’s music heritage.
