I pioneered afrobeat gospel -KSB

Kenny Saint Best is a veteran gospel singer and a major player in the entertainment industry. ORJI ONYEKWERE caught up with at a recent event, where she threw more light on her latest song – Heaven.

Let’s talk about your latest single ‘Heaven’…

Yes, my single, Heaven. It’s inspired by expectations. I am using heavens literarily not about heaven and earth or heaven and hell. It’s bliss. Another word for answered prayer, joy, peace. Another word for healing when you have suffered. Another word for hope and even eternal life. It’s an inspirational song. There’s peace that comes from God. Even when you’re under pressure: maritally, financially, health wise, heaven is what you look unto.

There’s a second part of the song which says; all things are possible to those who believe. You can be sick and you will sing  heaven is smiling on me and you will receive healing. It’s a song of hope just to bring God close and bring answers to you. The song accompanies you and tells you that you are not alone. When you talk of heaven, you are talking of the host of heaven, God, his son and the host of heaven. God dispatches his angels to help you wherever you find yourself.

Your music video did not exhibit all these?

We are in the era of content creation because if you do music  these days, you know the kind of money they are calling. Even the real video is AI, and I have not finished paying. I am hoping it will come out for Easter so that it will draw your attention to what Easter stands for. What we have out there is a content video, not the real video, that’s what they do now. Whereby you can create as many content videos to put the song in people’s faces rather than stand on one musical video that costs so much and will not go viral.

I am particular about people knowing the lyrics first apart from the video. What we have is content video not the real video.

Guess what the sing is not new, it’s about 15 years.

So why did it come out now?

Every song has its season and the song was just singing at me towards the end of last year and I was like okay, it’s your season. I did the song just for people to know that whatever they are expecting let them know that heaven is smiling at them.

Do you have expectations, you just did an exam or you did an interview, heaven is smiling at you. In 2026, heaven is smiling down on me and nothing will cut it short. Even with the situation of the country, heaven is smiling on me. It’s just the  song of comfort. It was singing itself to me and I was like, let the people have it.  It’s quite long, it was a song I wrote and recorded in pain, why are things so hard, am I the only one. But whatever is the situation heaven is smiling down on me, I know with God all things are possible

You released two other singles in 2024…

Yes. I have been releasing songs since 2001, when I released Eledumare, Ebube, followed by another with BJ Sax and then with Yinka Alaseyori. They are all worship songs and God told me, come back to music and do a full worship album. I needed people to know that I am back gradually.

We are in the era of social media and so many things are competing for people’s attention. It’s not the era where you release a full album, that’s why I was releasing them  after another and every song is a God centered song talking only about his glory. The album is called the symphonies of glory. Different sounds of glory.

It’s like the old generation of gospel singer are no longer meeting up with the pace of this new generation?

Like I said, it’s different songs for different era and generation. To the glory of God, I was ahead of my time because I started the afrobeat gospel even though people were not sure if it was gospel music. So the era they are in was the era I started 15 years ago, like the song ‘Turn me around’ with Dagrin and others. I didn’t know what to call it then, but I have to call it alternative gospel and that was when I did heaven.

So, the genre of song they are doing you did it 15 years ago?

What they call afrobeat gospel, I was the first to start it, but it’s what is given to you that you will do. When I did that song, I could not promote it because the ears of the people were not there for this sound. You don’t give people what has not been sold to them they will not buy it.  Moses Bliss is probably the champion of today’s afrobeat gospel music, Nathaniel Bassey is doing worship and praise and he is not doing fast, that’s pure God centered praises, pulpit worship songs and there are party songs.

But people cannot differentiate between these two?

They can, we can let them know. We that do the songs can let them know that these are pulpit songs and these are feel good gospel songs. People are trying to make praise songs to sound like feel good songs, where they are just happy and they introduced all manners of dancing styles. It’s feel-good songs.

There’s a song by Nathaniel Bassey which is a pure worship song. So there are songs people want to praise and they also want to feel good – jumping. It may not be totally praise but feel-good songs.

But every song is supposed to draw down the spirit of God…

Every song carries a spirit. Whether the spirit comes down or not, we are happy praising God in his presence than to do all this worldly music. So, if we make that kind of gospel music an alternative than going to the club, it’s good. We will rather do that afrobeat gospel song and be happy than going to the club and getting high on illicit things, but if they get high on God, that’s okay.

There’s traditional and contemporary gospel music and there’s afro beat gospel music. As musician, male or female, if you’re not accepted here, you can be accepted here or it can be there.  For example, Tope Alabi cannot come and do afrobeat gospel music, it’s not possible because it’s not given to her persona. She can vibe to it and enjoy it personally, but when it comes to performing in the crowd they already have expectations, they know what they are expecting from her. So, it depends on what you have built on.

Like KSB, I can do the afrobeat and they vibe, and I can then switch to worship songs and they worship, then take them back to contemporary music. It’s my persona, the brand and the songs I have given them over the years. If I now come to do Tope Alabi, they will be like; what’s wrong with this woman. Same thing with Dunsin Oyekan, he knows his place is in what he has been given and for us ministers, it’s delivery that matters. What does God want at this meeting. Once God says what he wants, you deliver that before you start making them to feel good.

There’s this belief that nobody owns any Christian song…

It’s not true because these are people’s intellectual property. It was inspired by the holy spirit. He needs me as his landlady, so the song coming here, he will use my name and you know the holy spirit himself cannot do it. If he gives me a song, he has given me and the song given to me can be attributed as my music and I can sue you if it’s used inappropriately without my permission.

If you say so, we shouldn’t have CMO, we shouldn’t have people collecting money on our behalf. It’s my song- Christian, non- Christian. However, you can use it to minister to the people, it’s free. These days they do covers, it’s allowed because they want to break into the market with your popular song before they get accepted.

“Yes, my single, Heaven. It’s inspired by expectations. I am using heavens literarily not about heaven and earth or heaven and hell. It’s bliss. Another word for answered prayer, joy, peace.”