A gospel musician, Mike Abdul, has advised young artistes to grow beyond talents and use their music as a weapon to create positive values in the country.
Abdul said this on the sidelines of the Gospel Music Auditions’ maiden edition organised by 5th Dimension Entertainment on Saturday in Lagos.
He advised young artistes to infuse knowledge with their talents, while calling on the older ones to interact more with young artistes rather than talking them down.
“We need to step into their culture, influence and make them know they can do better. If we don’t do that, we would be creating chaos,” he said.
Abdul who was one of the audition judges commended the organiser and called for more of such programmes, stressing that sponsorships was needed to sustain such initiatives.
Also, Iyke Michael, an actor, said that the movie industry had infused various cultures and harnessed them to promote the country.
Michael, who was also a judge at the audition, said that in the areas of politics, many artistes were doing their best to make sure that things were done properly.
“Recently, many artists through various skits and full length feature films have promoted the PVC registration.
“If you notice, a lot of us have stayed away from promoting any candidate. We all know who we are going to vote for, we are looking at strength of character rather than what the person has to offer financially,” he said.
On the significance of gospel music, Michael said that the choice was to celebrate God’s goodness, noting that a large percentage of music, including secular ones, have an undertone of glorifying God.
Similarly, Prince Iheanyi, President, 5th Dimension Entertainment, said that the audition was a precursor to enlist a team of 1,000 “Worshippers” from all over Nigeria and beyond.
“The audition would enable us to select talented gospel singers who shall minister the gospel through songs in an unprecedented manner never seen or experienced in the world.”
He said the audition was the forerunner to bigger events that would be the first of its kind globally.
According to him, the project is the company’s way of contributing to making the world saner through gospel music.
“The world is populated with music laced with illicit lyrics which have been a significant cause for the widespread indecency and moral decadence which we currently see, especially among young people.
“We want to change this narrative by using gospel music as the tool,” Iheanyi said.
