Bolgatanga People Almost Beat Me Because Of ‘Atia’ - A.B. Crentsil

A.B. Crentsil has recalled his infamous clash with the people of Bolgatanga.

The veteran guitarist had written a track 'Atia' which portrayed the people of the Upper East Region as drunkards.

His track particularly poked fun at the people from the north who had travelled south of the country to seek greener pastures.

This song, he recounted on the Best Entertainment Show on Accra-based Okay Fm hosted by Halifax Ansah-Addo, made, want to beat him on stage.

He spoke on the incident where they had cornered him while performing on stage, so he had to jump a wall to prevent the beatings that were awaiting him from the angry residents of Bolgatanga during a tour.

When they couldn't find him, the people of the Upper East Regional capital of Bolgatanga destroyed his instruments instead as payback for his insulting track.

“We use 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."

A.B Crentsil noted that the people of Bolgatanga did not make it a secret, since they walked up to him and made their plans known to him.

The 77-year-old native of Prestea in the Western Region explained how he had initially decided not to perform the track out of respect for the residents in the first place.

"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 escaped beatings,” he concluded.