Ministry first, money later - Gospel artiste Adepa

It seems the body of Christ might have found an ally in new Gospel artiste, Adepa, who is willing to put the ministry first before money.

Most Gospel artistes are in a constant fight, especially with the church, when it comes to getting paid but the church believes the artistes are doing the work of God.

The artistes are of the view that they must be paid for services rendered instead of being given food and nothing else when they have invested time and effort into showing up to perform.

Sharing her thoughts on this struggle, Adepa said if anyone entered the Gospel industry with the aim of making money, he or she would not last.

“For me, it is ministry first before any other thing and that is what I will preach and encourage. If you go into the gospel industry with the sole mindset of making money, you will not last beyond your first song.

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“I am very devoted to this ministry. I know God will reward and bless the works of my hands with money. So ministry first and the money will follow. That’s my sacrifice, Jehovah Jireh cares for me,” she told Graphic Showbiz recently.

Speaking about how the Gospel industry was treating her so far, Adepa, who won MTN Hitmaker last year, revealed that it had not been easy but she was loving it.

“It is not easy but I'm loving the journey, no matter how slow it may seem. I was privileged to have a boost from winning MTN Hitmaker so it set me on a certain level. It could have been better but the COVID year was a tough one to break through.

“More work needs to be put in to justify winning the competition and as such it’s been tough. All eyes are on you and you cannot fail the stakeholders,” she said.

Adepa also noted that the space she finds herself is very competitive. “The industry is very competitive. The target and focus are not just the local market, so in terms of composition, arrangements, branding and all, everything has to be top notch.
 
“You have to fight extra hard to keep the fire burning. People will not make excuses for you because you are a Gospel artiste. The church community also may not like it very much if you produce just anything for them to consume simply because you’re doing Gospel,” she said.

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In terms of challenges, the Biological Scientist mentioned a few, saying, “Funding and promotion of songs. It is one thing producing a great song and it is another ensuring that it becomes a hit. I have realised that even the songs that become hits have a lot of promotional work that go into them.

“The mechanism has to be proper to ensure repeated airplay for people to fall in love with it. It’s a combination of airplay, online presence, video production and the works. Making a hit is hard work; all of these cost money; you have to be very calculated with what you have to maximise it.”

Currently, Adepa has a song with Joe Mettle titled My Miracle and explaining what inspired the song, she said, “My Miracle was inspired by the waiting process for what we all truly believe God for. What to do when waiting for miracles. It's not easy to wait, to trust, to remain steadfast, to worship and to praise while waiting but it will surely come through for you if you simply master the art of knowing what to do during the trying times we all go through.”

She also spoke on how she landed the feature with Joe Mettle. “There are giants in the Gospel industry I have always wanted to work with. Joe is one of them so my team looked for the opportunity and made it happen. It took a while but at last, finally it is here,” she stated.