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He was undoubtedly one of the most iconic legends of highlife in Ghana, but one of his popular songs got him in big trouble, so much so that he had to do the unthinkable to escape.
Sharing the story around his song, Atia, and how it nearly got him beaten in Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region, the highlife legend, AB Crentsil, while speaking on the Best Entertainment Show on Accra-based Okay Fm in 2021, said that he only got to escape after he scaled a wall.
According to him, the angry residents of Bolga wanted to severely beat him during a tour of the region because they felt his song portrayed them as drunkards.
The people requested a withdrawal of the song as well as for him to send an official apology to their chief.
He also explained that while he escaped, his musical instruments were not spared by the agitated residents.
“We used to visit Bolga for shows and we used to play at Catering Rest House. I am used to Northerners and their lifestyle. You know that the songs of A.B Crentsil songs are always characterized by controversies. We went for a performance in Bolgatanga. At the time, I had just released the “Atia” song and there was a misunderstanding here and there.
“When we got to the venue, we set up and were ready for the show and took a rest waiting for the time to begin. It was a time we attached a concert group to the band so we could enter the rural areas. The place was packed to capacity and we performed different types of music including highlife, Funky and Raggae. It was during highlife I was expected to mount the stage. When it got to my turn, I performed several tracks and made them understand that I would be done with my performance and the concert group will take over.
“A young man mounted the stage and demanded to know why I wanted to end my performance because I had not performed ‘Atia’. Unknown to me they wanted to perform ‘Atia’ so they could beat me but when I tried to convince them, they disagreed. He told me in the face that whether I play Atia or not beatings await me. Looking at the scene, there was no escape route so I passed by the wall as though I was going to urinate and jumped over to escape beatings,” he explained.
Many pundits had stated, on the release of the indisputably all-time hit song, that it made fun of the brothers from the north who had travelled south of the country to seek greener pastures.
