Celebrities: Ghanaian musicians who faded away after one hit

Ghana has produced so many musicians, especially in recent times. Sadly, most of these musicians after just one hit song have faded away faster than they came. On this episode of Celebrity Watch, we take a look at five of these musicians who wowed Ghanaians but just for a short while.

Wisa Greid

That name sounds familiar? Yes, it must do except you were on the moon or somewhere in outer space nine years ago. In 2014, Wisa Greid released a song that would probably have won several awards if he was an established musician in the country already. Despite his unknown status at the time, Ekikimi which featured Luther was an instant hit and mesmerized music fans with many predicting that he would be the next big thing in the country.

Unfortunately, the young man could not handle the fame that came with it and wanted to do more. Wisa got it all wrong when he showed his genitalia openly on stage during one of the country’s biggest entertainment events, Citi FM’s Decemba 2 Remember in 2015. That ultimately crashed his young career as he had to deal with the police for about three years. He released other songs including “Cocoa” in 2016, “Show Something” in 2019 and “Chupa Chop” in 2020 among others but none have pushed him closer to getting back to his best as he has remained in the darkest dungeons of the industry, oblivion.

Atom

Another one here is Atom, Ebenezer Larbi, as he was christened at birth, the musician shot to fame in 2015 with the release of his hit song “Ye Wo Krom” featuring Jhunea. The song became an instant hit and if you were at an event and this song was not played, then you had not attended the right one. It was the kind of popularity that you would often see with mainstream artists but here it was, from an unknown young man from Ghana’s Eastern Region. The song got a remix from Ghanaian celebrated hiplife artist Kwaw Kese.

However, Atom has not been able to build on that fame and the last time we had major news of him was when he was enstooled as the Gyaasehene in the Asuogyaman traditional area with the title name Nana Efum Larbi I.

Raquel

You may not remember this name but that is fair because she had her time quite a long time ago if you consider the timing of the previous two names before her. Raquel had been around for some time but what shot her to the limelight was her 2013 hit song “Sweetio” which featured rapper Sarkodie. The song made airwaves and was a household name in the country during the time. Prior to that, she had an embarrassing scene that anyone would wish to forget except Wisa Greid who repeated the trick intentionally.

Raquel was on stage performing at the annual December 2 Remember organized by Citi FM. She went on stage in a skimpy dress which is normal with most female musicians but what she got different was her decision to perform in that dress while not wearing panties. She claimed it was a wardrobe malfunction which occurred backstage but every sane person would agree that she could have avoided it if she wanted but instead chose to show her “toto” in public. Fortunately for her, people who had clearer shots of her genitalia did not publish them for various reasons but the damage was already done. That is not probably the reason for her descent into oblivion but she appears in this list because she is nowhere to be found since her hit single “Sweetio” in 2013.

Patapaa

You must know this one unless you are a kid of about five years reading this. Yeah, because even children took to the “One Corner” craze led by Patapaa and his Pa2Pa army. Released in 2017, the song featured Ras Cann and Mr Loyalty. Apart from the song’s lyrics majority of which probably have no meaning or can be classified as “noise”, the song had a strange dance that made it a favourite for me.

Patapaa followed up with other songs such as “Suro Nipa”, and “Haters” which featured Twicy and Wendy Shay. He did other songs which at least were meaningful when compared to his “One Corner” song but he probably has not warmed to the fans because they associate him with the “gibberish” kind of thing so the good songs he did probably sounded strange in their ears.

He has not been in the limelight as he did in 2017 and 2018. He also got in the news regularly for non-music-related matters due to his marriage to Liha Miller, a German. Patapaa did release a song in 2023 titled “My Grand Fada” which features Ada but it has not received the heat as Patapaa remains in the shadows of the music world.

Atimbila

If you are seeing this name for the first time and wonder who that is, well, no blame on you because Atimbila was here a long time ago. In 2012, MTN Ghana rolled out a music reality show called the MTN Hitmaker. The show offered a GHS100,000 recording deal to the winner among several other prizes. Atimbila was among the participants in the maiden season and he travelled all the way to the final. He lost to Naterial who took home the top prize with two others Chiki and Miriam pushing the Bolgatanga-based artist to fourth.

However, Atimbila emerged from that competition as the strongest and brightest in the music industry despite his fourth-place finish. He recorded “Nice Thing” with Sarkodie and Mohammed and “Sister” featuring Ruff N Smooth. Both songs were produced by award-winning producer Posigee and they were hit songs in the early 2010s.

Unfortunately, the Soe-born “Kologo” specialist has not been able to build on that to push his career to the biggest place and remain in the spotlight as he has faded away into oblivion. He is still very active in music and together with his Batakari band is performing at events and releasing new songs regularly but he has not been able to garner the craze he had before.

NOTE: What do you think of this list? Who should be here but has been omitted? Leave your comments below and stay tuned for the next on this series.