• Most singers wake up with no hopes of making any coin, he says
Gospel singer Ben Githae says musicians are the biggest victims of this corona pandemic.
The 'Tano Tena' hitmaker says most singers wake up with no hopes of making any coin.
Speaking to Word Is he said, "The only assured money they have is from Skiza, yet when it comes to doing things, they do like any person who has a basic salary at every end month."
He said during this Covid-19 season, most of the artistes are affected as there are no places to perform or get gigs from.
When the first case of the coronavirus was reported in Kenya, Ben says he missed over Sh150,000 over that weekend. "So when you see artistes complaining, know that those complaints are genuine since we work hard," he said.
In a recent post by Willy Paul, he called out the President to come to the aid of artistes, who are suffering due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Dear Mr President, I’m just speaking from a musical perspective," he wrote.
"If an established musician can feel the pinch like me, what about the uprising, who only makes 5,000 shillings per gig and they still have to pay rent and feed their families."
In February, MCSK distributed the scientific payments to the artistes, where Sauti Sol were the top earners by receiving Sh400,000. Ben says he also received good money for the first time. "I can't complain because I was given Sh61,000, but there are those local artistes who received better than me," he said.
However, he made an appeal to the radio stations to consider playing their music so that some artistes can also get some money. "Most local artistes who do not have Swahili or English songs suffer most because they do not get airplay from most radio stations," he said.
Other top earners were Nyashinski, Christina Shusho, Mercy Masika, Eunice Njeri and Nameless.