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| Photo courtesy of FIFA |
#TheAfricanDream recently had the opportunity of talking to Ernest Sagoe, a young musician and soccer fanatic who hails from Elmina in the Central Region of Ghana. Ernest who is affectionately called Ernie moved to the capital city of Ghana in Accra after graduating high school. It was while in Accra that he decided to pursue his musical ambitions.
Armed with his passion for music, Ernie quit his full time job of four years to dive nose deep into music. After selling some of his personal effects to record a few tracks he set himself on the path to find people to promote it. The young singer songwriter was turned down many times until he out of frustration decided to send a copy of his song to Sonny Young; his favorite radio show host at the Voice of America (VOA) in Washington DC.
Sonny Young of the VOA gave Ernie his first radio airplay when the music, ‘Champions’ was featured on the Sonny Side of Sports radio show in early September of 2013. Champions preaches about the beauty, respect and unquenchable love the fans, players, and referees have for the game of football (soccer). As Ernie says, ‘to become a champion you need support from your fans to motivate you to give it your every best even when you are losing’. This music also talks about team work which is always evident in almost every kind of sports.
Here is the video to the music ‘Champion’ which Ernie says he also made for the next soccer world championships; Brazil 2014.
As a child, Ernie remembers loving musicians like Bob Marley, Michael Bolton, Lionel Richie, Celine Dion, Michael Jackson and a host of other musicians like them. When the years went by and he grew older, he carved a pattern for himself and started to get more interested in musical genres like Rhythm and Blues, Classic Rock, Soul and Pop music even though he remains accepting of all other genres today.
Why did Ernie chose to use the medium of sports, specifically soccer, to display his music by dedicating a song to the Brazil 2014 World Cup? The musician answers: ‘soccer is one of the biggest sporting festivals on the globe today that is well organized and celebrated by the millions from Oceania to Asia, Africa, the North and South Americas, the MidEast, Europe and Antarctica. As an upcoming talent therefore, there is no bigger platform to display my music than the 2014 FIFA World Cup. My hope is that someone recognizes my work’ he says, and surely he has been noticed by The Sonny Side of Sports’ host who is also available on twitter as seen here in a tweet about Ghana in 2014 FIFA world cup qualifiers.
As Ernie zooms in to talk more about his second passion—soccer—he praises his favorite team, the Black Stars of Ghana who have had opportunities to represent Africa in previous FIFA World Cups. Ernie believes the Black Stars have earned the rights to be called the Brazil of Africa in terms of soccer with their sterling performance in Germany 2006 as first timers to the world cup when they made history by advancing to the round of 16.
The Black Stars of Ghana were once again there to represent Africa at the highest soccer stage when for the first time, the
FIFA World Cup was hosted on the continent by South Africa in 2010. ‘Like many Africans around the world, I believe Ghana could have won Africa the world cup had it not been for that controversial play by Suarez of Uruguay’ recounts Ernie of the saga in which the said Uruguayan player prevented a goal bound ball of Ghana from entering the net with his hands.
Immediate past FIFA world cups have have seen great performances from some African teams with countries like Cameroon, Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana and the likes scaring big names like Argentina, France and Uruguay among others. For this reason, Ernie believes that the prophesy of
Pele; Brazilian soccer superstar and legend that it is only a matter of time when the difficulty that prevents Africa from winning the FIFA world will no longer be there holds very true.
Ernie says he personally also looks forward to the day when as a musician he will get his big break and have his first record deal. After his feature on the VOA Sonny Side of Sports, Ernest Sagoe has also had his music checked out by DW PopExport of Germany radio who recommended he shares it with Universal Music. At the time of finishing this blog, Ernie says he has sent a letter to Universal Music with the hope that he gets a record label or a manager who is willing to help him develop his talents.
