makossa original: Ben Decca

maandag 5 december 2016

Ben Decca

With a career spanning more than 30 years and nearly 150 songs to his credit, Ben Decca is one of the most successful Makossa singers of his generation. Initially, nothing indicated that the young Ben would be such a successful singer. Raised in a family of car technicians his father had a career as a technician in mind for his son. It was more or less by accident that he became involved in music. In 2006 Ben Decca told the following story about the release of this first single in an interview with RFI:

"I arrived in the music world like a hair in a bowl of soup," Decca claims, flashing a broad grin. The budding young musician was a student at the time, completing a college course in France. One night a friend happened to hear him sing and his fortunes changed from one day to the next. "My friend thought it was a pretty good song," recounts Decca, "and he offered to record it." But Decca turned down the offer, knowing his father would be furious if he found out his son was neglecting his studies to make music. The friend insisted they could find a solution and persuaded Decca to record an album, promising it would be released without his face on the cover. The single entitled Nyong’a mulema came out at the end of 1981 – featuring a close-up photo of the singer. "And all hell broke out," recalls Decca, "My father took it all very badly, of course. But with time he finally came to accept my career".

From that moment Ben Decca has been continuously at the top of the Makossa scene. With love, his homeland and morality as recurring themes in his songs, he reached an unprecedented popularity as crooner, especially among women. In 1987 he was elected as Artist of the Year for the first time in his career and also received his first Gold Record for the album L’amour a sens unique’. Ben Decca has always remained faithful to the pure makossa. With the album Makossa Phoenix he showed in 2006 his devotion to the authentic Makossa that has been so lacking in recent years on the Cameroon music scene.

♫ 2010 Makossa Phoenix

In 2010 Ben Decca celebratred his 30th anniversary as a singer. Shortly after he was elevated to the rank of knight in the national order and exceptional value. He received this award by the Minister of Arts and Culture in recognition for his entire musical work.