Music and media entrepreneur, Abdullai Abu Sadiq popularly known as Baba Sadiq has bemoaned the lack of understanding on the part of some artistes with regards to performing for free at certain events.

Speaking in Joy Entertainment’s Twitter spaces conversation on Friday, February 17, 2023, Baba Sadiq said some events are non-commercial and require that artistes billed to perform cooperate with the event organisers on monetary terms.

The co-founder of the 3Music Awards added that it was usually difficult engaging artistes to perform for free.

“It is very difficult [getting and an artiste to perform for free] unless you have the relationship, first and for most, and like I said, [it] depends on the situation,” he said.

He advised that artistes should look beyond physical payments and also think about the value the platforms will give them.

According to Sadiq, after 3Music Awards curated the ‘rain performance’ for Black Sherif’s ‘Kwaku the Traveller’ in 2022, a lot of artistes approached him to lobby for such opportunities in future because they saw how that concept impacted Black Sherif’s burgeoning career. 

He, however, noted that the agenda of Ghana’s music industry has always been about enabling artistes and not event organisers, a situation he believes does not augur well for the entertainment ecosystem. 

Baba bemoaned how most corporate institutions have stopped sponsoring events.

“…the market has broken. The sponsorship market has crashed. Nobody is getting the sponsorship from the sponsorship market anymore. The investment to produce these shows is not even happening anymore. These talents of when they produce their own shows are running at losses,” he stated.

His comment comes on the back of the discussion on encouraging ‘no fee for performance’ policy for some events in Ghana.

The discussion was premised on a similar policy that obtains in other foreign events such as the Grammy Awards, Super Bowl Halftime Show, Global Citizen Festival, among others.