Esther Smith is getting a lot of media hype lately. As someone who saved to buy each of her first three albums and can boast of being able to sing at least 80% of her songs, I can say for a fact that I have paid enough attention to her career and appreciate what she has offered to the Gospel Music Industry since she emerged in 2003.
However, the truth should always stand over emotions and uninformed conclusions drawn from a lack of knowledge about what happened before the turn of the millennium and recency bias.
In Ghana, due to the penchant for not keeping records, it is easy for people to just get up and start championing an agenda for that agenda to be adopted as historical.
One such agenda is Esther Smith being projected as the greatest of all time in terms of Gospel Music. It’s a conversation that actually gets me extremely disappointed because I expect some industry people with the platform to speak up and correct these misinformed opinions, but unfortunately, there is silence.
What should be the criteria for the Gospel GOAT? Shouldn’t that be based on albums and how great the songs were?
By this, Esther Smith pales considerably and would struggle to make the top 10. Like, are you guys on crack or what? Put Esther Smith over Daughters of Glorious Jesus, Hannah Marfo, Yaw Sarpong, and co?
These new-generation guys think Ghana started after 2000. Like, you talk Gospel and even imagine Esther Smith rivals Daughters? You need to be arrested.
Esther Smith is in the same category as Christiana Love, one of the best of this generation, with the only disadvantage of having bad press due to marital problems. Esther Smith had her own marriage issues and some negative media attention, but somehow, she and the man involved handled it in a more dignified way, so she managed to keep her reputation intact.
Let’s rate based on works, albums, and hit songs, and you’d realize that Esther Smith isn’t musically better, in terms of hit-for-hit, compared to Obaapa Christie. This is not to bring Esther down to fit the narrative, but to raise Christiana Love up to where she belongs in the Gospel conversation.
I believe that before anyone comes with such a rating, the person needs to do proper research.
You don’t just get up and put out a list, put your favorite first, and decide who you want. I even saw one with Joe Mettle at 3rd, Diana Hamilton at 4th, and Daughters of Glorious Jesus at 6th.
We have to get serious. Work by work, Esther Smith, who I genuinely respect and appreciate, won’t get beyond Daughters of Glorious Jesus, Hannah Marfo, Mama Esther, Yaw Sarpong, and Asomafo and a host of others. In the late ’80s to the mid-’90s, do people have any idea what Helena Rabbles offered? Esther Smith ranks in the same category as Diana Akiwumi, Tagoe Sisters, Obaapa Christie, Hannah Marfo, Mama Esther—all greats, all all-time greats, but none touches Daughters and Yaw Sarpong.
Every top ten ranking will be met with debate; it would be influenced by some biases, but when it comes to who the greatest has been, no one touches Daughters, and if anyone should, that name must be Yaw Sarpong and Asomafo. Esther won’t make the top 5. Do people even have an idea what Abawa Connie did in her prime?
We have to get serious. You Gen Zs should stay away from such rankings. We had people whose album releases were met with queues at cassette shops, you go the next day and it is in shortage.
People churn out such lies and get countless uninformed people to buy them, and then when you set out to set the records straight, you appear as though you’re a hater.
I have nothing against Esther Smith; my problem is that when you project someone who is not the best as the best, you deprive the real best of their rightful place. This is my only issue.
Personally, my Gospel GOAT is Kusi Berko. His song Mmerane is, to me, the best-written song in history. He produced some of the finest songs ever, but I cannot be delusional and say he is the GOAT. That must be beyond sentimental.
Kofi Kyei
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