THE SONGWRITING BUSINESS
3 September 2019
by Kabura Ng'ang'a
The business of songwriting is big everywhere around the world. And now even during award shows as big as the Grammys, the song that wins the songwriter category will have the list of the names involved in the writing process of the song even if it excludes the singer of the song. There are people who are purely surviving on their songwriting skills, such as Sia who doesn’t have too many songs out but she is credited for the many songs we get to hear on the radio.
In Kenya however, people do not employ songwriting skills people and in the industry, very few people will even acknowledge that they personally had no hand in writing the songs that they are promoting or winning awards for. Therefore music almost feels like for one to get into it you have to master everything from songwriting to everything. It is only recently that I heard Mercy Masika acknowledge that her hit song, Mwema was actually not written by her but by Mr. Vee. And she ensures that for every song she puts out which isn’t written by her has the writer credited.
Award shows in Kenya do not also recognize the songwriters when they are listing songs for the awards. They do not acknowledge that a song may be written by someone who is not the singer of the song which of course comes from the singers not crediting the writers.
As an artist, credit your writers when you next put out a project. And as a stakeholder in the industry, remember these important pieces of the music puzzle.
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