Henry De-Mensah aka Nana Quame was born on 22nd Feb 1978. At a very tender age he started performing in talent shows and despite his extremely young age he won a talent show on national television doing renditions of Kojo Antwi songs. Kojo Antwi spotted the talent in Nana Quame so he retained him under his fold. Nana Quame featured in various hit songs in the mid 1990s including Ma Asan Aba by Akyeame, Philomena by Tic Tac as well as the mega hit, Tom & Jerry by Kojo Antwi..
He released his debut album under Kojo Antwi’s record label Family Spirit. The album caused a stir in the Ghanaian music scene topping the charts. His second album Odo Shock, was a phenomenon hit which stayed on the chart for 30 weeks.
Odo shock, which was a hit, took the singer to another level. He mounted stages alongside big Artists in Ghana and UK. Nana Quame has to his credit successful shows such as Loud In Accra 2000, he was the first Ghanaian to perform at the Carnival 2000 in UK and Ghana Independence Day Celebration UK, Miss Ghana 2001(Ghana), Africa Durb(UK) and Miss Ghana New York.
In 2001, he released his third album, Fakye. He won the 2002 Ghana Music Award for Original Song of the Year. In 2002 he followed with another album called Nana Quame released under his record label NQ Records. He won the Best Male Vocalist for the year 2003. In 2007, he also released another album, Asew which enjoyed massive airplay as well several Ghana Music Award nominations.
Nana Quame who was speaking in an intriguing interview with Dr.Who on Accra based Hot93.9fm on Wednesday 1st February 2017, affirmed that his dream was to come back to Ghana from London and continue doing the wonderful music he did a decade ago but that did not come to fruition because he has been shabbily treated by people he entrusted:
“I spent all my money I brought from UK and I felt there was no place for me in Ghana since almost everyone was turning against me and no help was coming from anywhere-My own manager whom I housed and fed together with a company duped me to the tune of GHC200.000.00 meant for my ‘Nana Quame and friends ’show in Cape Coast-
“Some artistes I helped during my hey days don’t want to even collaborate with me, but God has a way of blessing everyone and I think my trying moments has drawn me closer to God. I now know God is the only one I can trust”, He told Dr Who. The despondent part of the interview was when the “Atia Donko hit maker surprisingly shed uncontrollable tears after a caller called on the show to give his account of Nana Quame’s ordeal.
Nana Quame also has his traditional Afro band, which plays alongside him wherever he goes. His style of music has the fusion of Ghanaian highlife and R & B; he also sings traditional Yaaponsa music, which is the original Ghanaian music.
Nana Quame’s music can be purchased and downloaded on aftown.com
Credits: Ghanaweb.com
