By Montell Benson
On whether a gospel musician should charge as much as 10m naira to perform at a Christian gathering, I have these to say:
•One needs to understand that the musician is not a minister of the gospel, but an artiste. Artistes get paid for the →performances they give, right?
•An artiste does not go alone to an event. They go with a crew which consists of back-up singers, instrumentalists, photographers/videographers, stylists, guards, etc. S/he has to book flights to and from the venue for everyone. Have you considered accomodations, too? Moreover, everyone in the crew has to receive a certain amount of money at the end of the event. Is the artiste going to do all that with saliva?
•Do you think pastors invite popular gospel artistes to sing at events because they don’t have singers in their own churches who can sing and ‘bring down heaven’? The pastor who invites an artiste knows full well that the presence of the invited artiste will bring in more money, as there are people who would want to attend the programme because so and so artiste would be there. It’s business. More people equals more money. Let’s be sincere. As a pastor, you want to make money; allow gospel artistes to make money too. Don’t use other people’s talents to enrich your pocket, while the owners of the talents remain poor ‘for the kingdom’.
•Again: the gifts of a man/woman will make a way for them. Let them be. They have worked so hard to get to where they are. Are you unhappy that they are enjoying the fruits of their labours? Isn’t that witchcraft?
•Let’s learn to reward talents. Many people have decided to engage in illegal crafts rather than work hard, because today’s society hardly rewards hardworking people. It’s time we abolished this kind of mentality.
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