For a couple of years now, music enthusiasts have been concerned with the obvious lack of real talent on the part of many of the up and coming musicians and with good reason.

Meanwhile it appears as though no one has noticed the over-worked, under-paid and generally unrewarded musicians whose voices have made many hit song what it is under the guise of backing vocalist.

As a traditional, backing vocalists are usually nameless and faceless young women and men with execellent voices who, for one reason or the other, are not into full time music production, or are waiting for their bi break. They are contracted on their own terms to sing choruses or to collaborate with both circular and gospel artistes in the making of their album.

More often than not, however, backing vocalist do more than just singing as Ernestina Mensah told Showbiz during an interview last week. They bring their years of experience in the music business to bear on many a song and often go the extent of re-arranging the song all together to make it sound better.

She said, “I am often called upon by the musicians themselves to help them with a line or two. Other times it’s on the sound engineers request that my assistance is sought. They tell me what they want and I give them what they need”.

“In the studio I take a look at the music script, if there is any, and sing the song in the way the musician indicates. More often than not, however, I am just given the general concept of how the song will go and I will make my own adjustments. There are occasions when I virtually re-organize the whole work that the artistes brought to the studio. It is difficult but it is done in a days work.”

It is true that many workers in Ghana are unpaid; however one would think that having done all this work without being entitled to the money that will accrue from the sale of the album or song will male the back-up vocalist well-paid person. The contrary is true in this case.

Tina, who has been a back vocalist for close to four years, lamented the poor remuneration. One can only imagine how low this price can get if the musician is an up-coming one with cash flow problems. As if that is not enough, many musicians do not so much acknowledge their backing vocalists in the in-lay cards of their albums.

In the face of all these setbacks, these musicians, who qualify in many instances to be called real musicians because of their excellent vocal performance, have not given up yet. They continue to add their refined and melodious voices to those of the mostly coarse and brash vocal presentation of many of these so-called hiplife artistes.

Being a back-up for a live show is a different ball game altogether according to Tina. “Its more interesting and rewarding as the public also get to meet the faces behind the song. The last artiste I featured with was Orlando Julius during his performance at the Spacefon Legend show a few weeks back. That was fun,” she said.

When asked to give some of the songs in which she has featured, Tina Mensah gave a long list of songs including Sidney’s Apuskeleke, Obrafour’s Osai Ye and a number of songs on Nkasei’s yet –to-be-released album as well as featuring on VIP’s latest album. On stage, Tina has backed big time artistes like Rex Omar, Rocky Dawuni and Nat Brew to mention but a few.

Like Mary Agyapong, who spent years as a back-up vocalist for the likes of the maestro himself, Kojo Antwi, before coming out with her own work, Tina Mensah is working on her personal album, which is scheduled to come out soon. According to her, the work is not going to be a mediocre one, unlike many of the songs that are currently on the market.

To all the many back-up vocalists, this article is in recognition of your contribution to the songs that we so love to listen and dance to. Miriam, Maggi, Ivonne, Nana Ama and all of you out there who contribute so much to the music industry in Ghana, thank you!