Ghanaian musician, Arathejay, has stated that not every inspirational or spiritual song should be called gospel music, especially if it does not mention the name of Jesus Christ.
In an interview with GhanaWeb‘s Elsie Lamar, the ‘Jesus Christ’ hitmaker explained that gospel music is supposed to be specifically about Jesus Christ, and not just about God, encouragement, or positive messages.
According to him, many of the artistes people consider gospel musicians are not actually doing gospel music.
“Anybody who does anything and talks about God, positive message, encouragement, and inspiration that doesn’t mention Jesus is not gospel. Many people that you may classify as gospel artistes are not even doing gospel because gospel has to do with Jesus Christ,” Arathejay said.
He added that even though he personally talks about Jesus in his music, he classifies his songs as spiritual music, not gospel.
He believes there is a wide range of topics to explore when making spiritual music, and that God gives different people different ways of sharing his message.
“I base my music as spiritual music because I believe that there are variety of things to talk about and God has placed us in this world and has given us various mantras. I believe mine is to be able to convey his message in the various things that he causes me to experience, in the various things he causes me to hear in my times of silence, in my time of conversation… I believe that is my mantra aside other things,” he said.
Meanwhile, you can watch GhanaWeb TV’s exclusive interview with Arathejay below:
AK/EB