THE EVOLUTION OF URBAN CONTEMPORARY MUSIC IN CELESTIAL CHURCH OF CHRIST

Celestial Church of Christ, has come a long way and without a shadow of a doubt, we can say that Celestial Church of Christ is a breeding ground for great Music talents that will one way or the other and in due time, shake the world. This is not far fetched as even the founder Papa SBJ Oshoffa, was a musician himself, this is well documented in the church’s Constitution. 

The place of music in any religious space cannot be overemphasized, it is the vehicle that makes the human flesh transcend into the spiritual space, no wonder many hymns in Celestial church were given miraculously; an example is  Hymn 229, given by an 11 month old baby. This and many other hymns were given by inspiration and revelation by the Holy Spirit. This indeed made Celestial Church of Christ, one of the African instituted churches with its own original hymn book with very little interference from foreign authordox establishments. This on its own made Celestial Church a hub for great composers and musical acts. Indeed, music was pivotal in Celestial church since its inception.

As the church began to grow, so did our music. Choirs began to emerge from various countries and provinces where the church had spread its reach. Different parishes with their respective genres and uniques preferences, from the Egun ensemble to the Rumba “alumole” and to the Highlife Guitar chords etc. Choirs in CCC began to come up with great compositions and began recording Albums. They also began to push the Celestial brand in the Nigerian Gospel music space. Members of Celestial church began to looking forward to anniversary compositions and Albums from different Celestial choirs spread across the globe. Several Stars also began to emerge from these Parishes, However, it wasn’t a popular move in the church music space to stand as Solo Artists. 

For the purpose of this Article, we will zoom our lenses to only the Nigeria space. As bright as these stars were, they preferred the safe space of the Choir. Artists like Steve Pelemo of blessed memory, Psalmist, Baba Abone; to mention a few. 

Simultaneously however, certain Solo acts began to break the limit and moved our music past the “choir – centered” ideology. Artists like Ev. Imole Ayo and Baba Ara were in this class, they graced Harvests and several important church occasions. Baba Ara’s influence in the other hand, birthed a great movement; the “Alujo” movement. This also birthed many disciples and even influenced the style of play in many parishes, especially in the Yoruba speaking regions. The use of ‘Gangan’, ‘Omele’, ‘Bata’, ‘Sakara’ and other traditional African instruments became the new order in many Parishes. 

In the Nigerian Gospel scene, The Baba Ara movement greatly changed the music ideology, people were introduced to the entertainment side of gospel music and many singers began to welcome the idea of becoming solo acts.

Simultaneously, a strong force emerged which seemed like an aberration to the norm, Baba Adetiran of blessed memory came into the scene with the introduction of Classical singing of our hymns  and the composition of conscious music. The Central Choir was birthed and young minds bought into the school of thought, this led to him growing disciples and albeit, apostles of this school of thought. 

This indeed outgrew the grasp of the originator as the said disciples spread abroad to different Local Parishes, Student Parishes and Youth organizations pushing this new music philosophy. Music competitions emerged from this ideology and this philosophy became the yard stick to determine winners. This became a bedrock that birthed the Urban Contemporary Music in Celestial church. 

As young minds began to embrace this new ideas, local parishes on the other hand, had embraced the ‘Alujo’ side of the divide. The ‘Alujo’ movement however, needed a balance. Many embraced the ‘fun’ side of this genre and jettisoned music composition, which in turn reduced the number of choir Albums in the church. This movement became subject to abuse, as there was little or no attention given to music compositions and those who even pushed for it were met with criticism and antagonisms.

Some of these young minds, who found themselves in Tertiary institutions had the avenue to explore new grounds, at least without interference from local parishes. Student Parishes began releasing Albums, talented singers and musicians had the opportunity to grow and many looked forward to taking that fire to the local parishes and the global stage. 

Having garnered strength and courage to own their sound, and after leaving the Tertiary institutions and going back into the society, these young minds went back to the local church to make the desired change. This was indeed, met with different mountains and confrontation, ‘Alujo’ had become the norm and many parishes saw every other genre as out of the box. Asides competitions and other ‘out of church’ activities, all other genres were relegated to the background. 

Well, there was no giving up, as many of the proponents of the Contemporary Urban style took the courage to stand as independent artists and carved a niche for themselves. Since the technology of the day does not require a band before music is produced, these independent acts began releasing singles and Albums. From Worship to Soul, R&B to Rap, Folk to Afrogospel. These new ideas, though embraced mostly by elites and some new generation music lovers, didn’t garner massive following from the church at large but there was no going back. Musicians like Seyi Solagbade, Kent Edunjobi, Engo, Oluwatosindoz, Harjovy to mention a few, began pushing the narrative of this new brand.

However, during this modern era, certain obstacles still precluded many of these music artists from climbing the ladder of influence into the global music stage. One of these obstacles is limited support from the Church. The attention of the church had moved from Album projects to musical jamboree, where financiers glory in public display of wealth as against building legacies. 

Music acts who could not flow with this jamboree were most likely not supported, even proponents of the jamboree movement weren’t even encouraged to pursue a proper career in music due to the focus on public show. Hence, in the Nigerian Gospel Music space, asides Baba Ara, Celestial new acts have not own the ‘Alujo’ sound. Other Acts from other denominations began to explore this ground and took it to another level. This delt a huge blow on our gospel Alujo acts, who were only seen as party entertainers and not as gospel artists.

The proponents of the Contemporary/alternative genres on the other hand, have continued to push through the boundaries but a big break into Nigeria and indeed, global Gospel music space will largely depend on deliberate support and promotion from the church. 

Currently, as the Nigerian Christian space battles with the authenticity of the Celestial Church of Christ due to many projected ills of the church, which of course, isn’t peculiar to our denomination only, there is a deliberate need project the right narrative. One way we can do this is through our Music and music artists. 

Very recently, we had a big break with “Ebenezeri” by Apex choir and we wouldn’t deny the massive support of CCC Ketu International Headquarters amidst other things, pushed this song to the global audience. This support became bigger as the church massively supported their Artist, Kent Edunjobi to further project himself as a Nigerian Gospel Artist after recording the Ebenezeri single. This greatly changed the false narrative many had of Celestial Church and since music is a global language, many fell in love with Celestial Church once again.

We are in the era where Gospel Artists are seen as brand Ambassadors of their respective denominations and indeed, the Christian body. Hence many denominations are throwing massive support behind their different Artists.

Celestial Church, the ball is in our court, we have different Music acts who are struggling to have that global break and change the narrative about the church but due to little or no support, they hover around like local champs. 

We need to be deliberate in launching them into the global space; we are not even talking about invites to our parishes and programmes alone, we need to invest in their music projects like, recording and promoting Albums and concerts, playing their original songs in our programmes, private spaces and work spaces. How many of our Gospel Acts can we have in the Nigerian Gospel Music space and even globally?

This is a call to action, for our Parishes, Provinces, Zones and other Kingdom financiers, Let’s build legacies. Isn’t it pitiable that we celebrate harvests massively and lavishly?, yet some of these parishes cannot boast of good sound system, studio and music artists who are on the global stage.

It starts with one bold step and this is what has inspired the Celestial Music Awards Initiative. Let’s spread this fire in every strata in Celestial Church and project the glory of God in Celestial Church to the world.