Gospel glories

Gospel gloriesWinning awards and performing on international stages tjil speaks to the Namibian Gospel Music Association on how they are pushing artists out of their cocoons. Established in 2015 with the aim of creating a platform for gospel artists to get out of Namibian borders in terms of networking and hopefully collaborating with artists from other countries, the Namibian Gospel Music Association (NGMA) is truly living up to its dreams. The secretary-general of the association, Ndilimeke Nambinga, held talks with similar associations from other countries and Botswana was first to jump on the bandwagon.

“They were willing to work with us from the word go. I told them I wanted to work on having Setswana gospel artists in Namibia and vice versa and we also signed an MoU for 2019 on how to grow our artists. Exciting things are coming,” she said.

With the mindset of growing and getting Namibians into other territories, the association was able to get songstress Lady Dyna to grace the Botswana Gospel Music Awards and Manda Gabriel in the Southern African Gospel Music Awards and she scooped the Best Female Artist award. The artist said it was overwhelming and she is grateful for the recognition. She is currently nominated in the upcoming gospel awards.

“We still have a lot to do as gospel artists but this is proof that we stand a chance out there to do great things. It's usually non-gospel artists that make it out there but hey, we can also do it,” Gabriel said.

Lady Dyna says being given the opportunity to perform at another country's awards show was humbling and a great honour.

She says she was able to network with different artists, see how gospel is received in Botswana and so much more. According to her, artists need to be able to market themselves on international platforms by physically going instead of doing it on social media alone.

“They loved my music; I didn't think they would enjoy it that much. They are willing to have me back for my album tour too and this is all from stepping out of my comfort zone. Networking is very important. I learned that it's all about support at the end of the day and once you have that, any industry can work, “Lady Dyna said.

The NGMA will be signing up artists as of next year to join the association for these benefits and more. The association is strictly for serious and committed gospel artists.

“We want to be able to get Namibian music to play in other countries the way international artists' music plays here. We want to give our artists that chance to network and sell their brands themselves. The association is strictly for gospel artists and not those that sing other genres and this is for them to get a chance to flourish and have a chance for many opportunities they may miss out on,” Nambinga added.