Music
Ghanaian master flutist and composer Dela Botri has revealed that he did not even know a song he worked on had won a Grammy until someone researched the achievement and told him.
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Ghanaian master flutist and composer Dela Botri has revealed that he did not even know a song he worked on had won a Grammy until someone researched the achievement and told him.
Botri, popularly known as the “Flute Magician,” made the revelation while recounting how he came to work on the project during an interview with Kafui Dey.
According to him, the opportunity came in 2015 when he was invited by creative arts researcher and lecturer in Glasgow, Gameli Tordzro and Alfred Tamakloe to work on music for an orchestra programme.
He said he took the lead in transcribing and harmonizing the music because some of the musicians who were expected to perform relied on music notation.
“I need to transcribe the music first and then harmonize them so that we all perform together,” Botri explained.
While working on the project in Denmark, Botri said he received a call from film producer Oliver, who had been trying unsuccessfully to reach him on his usual phone line.
Oliver, according to Botri, told him that some people from the United States wanted him to participate in a recording and asked him to meet them at Movenpick Hotel in Accra when he returned to Ghana.
Botri said he agreed to the arrangement, negotiated his fee and was subsequently asked to recommend a recording studio.
He contacted NaCee to help secure a studio, after which they began working on two songs, one of which was titled “Milo.”
What Botri did not know at the time was that “Milo” would go on to win a Grammy.
Asked during the interview which of the songs had won the award, Botri initially appeared unaware of the achievement.
“Milo,” he said, before explaining that he only learnt about the Grammy after someone close to him conducted further research.
“I never even knew that the song has won award. It won a Grammy,” he recalled.
He said Emmanuel Asare later researched the song and informed him about the title of the award-winning track.
Ghanaian master flutist Dela Botri collaborated with Puerto Rican rapper Residente on his Grammy-winning self-titled album. Botri contributed to two tracks, playing the atenteben on “Milo” and percussion on “Dagombas en Tamale,” bringing authentic Northern Ghanaian sounds to the global project.
Botri explained that his focus has always been on the music itself rather than tracking awards or accolades attached to his work.
“I’m not hyper. I’m a researcher. I research into the music. But things like this, I feel like I have done the work already. It’s somebody’s job to go and also research. That’s it,” he said.
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