INFORMATION
| Artist Birtday : | 03/07/1990(Age 34) |
| Born In : | winneba |
| Occupation(s) : | singer and songwriter |
| Genres : | gospel |
His decision to become a musician instead of a health professional was initially resisted by his mother, who as a result stopped talking to him for quite sometime.
However, Noble Nketia did not give up his cherished dream and went ahead into the music profession.
Realising that it was his God given talent, his mother, the late Madam Veronica Fayosa, a Dispensary Assistant, co-operated and gave him all the needed support.
His father Mr. Emmanuel Winfred Kofi Nketia, a music teacher and also founder of Greater Christian Singers, seemed to have had an influence on Noble’s interest in music.
Noble Nketia, 27, was born at Winneba in the Central Region. He is the fifth of eight children to his father, but the first born of three to his mother. The only child of the relationship between his Mom and Dad.
He, however, schooled and lived most of his life in Kumasi, the Ashanti Regional capital. He started his education at the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) Nursery, then to Christian Preparatory School, and to Calvary Preparatory and Junior Secondary School and finally completed his basic education at the Holy Spirit M. A. Junior Secondary School.
He later enrolled into the Anglican Secondary School where he obtained his Senior Secondary School Certificate.
Right from Junior Secondary School Form One, Noble Nketia joined the school choir and participated in various choral festivals organised by the District Education Unit for Schools in the district.
He was also privileged to be a member of the district choir which won the first prize in the regional choral festival which was held in Tamale in 1996.
After school, Noble Nketia worked for some-time, to help the family. Since he did science in secondary school, his mother wanted him to be a medical doctor, or a health professional like her twin-brother who was a Dispensary Technician at the Pharmacy Department of the Okomfo Anokye Teaching Hospital. According to Noble, his mother loved seeing doctors and other health professionals in their white uniforms so much so that she just wanted her son to be one of them.
“On one on one basis, I told her I wanted to be a first class musician and a C-class doctor because she didn’t like the idea of me going for choir practice. However, to me, music was the best gift and a man is known for his gift, so I felt I should go on with music instead of forcing to become a doctor just because my mom wants me to do so.” Noble Nketia told The Spectator in an interview.
His mother eventually gave up her wish when she realised her son was born with the talent in music and begun supporting him in whatever he did.
From that point, Noble started working on his first album “Yesu do” which had eight tracks on it. The songs on the album include the title track “Yesu Do,” “Adom Arakwa”, “Masee Mmere,” “I am thirsting for you” and “His is my God.”
Noble said “I owe my beginning to one Morris who was then working with Hit Digital studio and lived in the same area with me. He helped me so much, he was very good.”
It was his first album, “Yesu Do”, which was released in October 2001 which brought Noble Nketia to the lime light as a gospel musician. The songs were so catchy that some companies used them for their jingles.
Noble Nketia started recording his second album “Gye Me” in 2003 when his mother died. He managed to release the album which had 10 songs including “Me Dan Wo”, “Gye me,” and Mewo Nyame Bi” but the loss of his mother affected him so much so that he could not put in maximum effort to promote his album.
“My mom was my strength and everything to me. I loved her and she loved me so much. Her loss was a great blow to me and everything of mine went down. So I had to live without her and to take care of my two sisters,” Noble said.
His current album “My Vision” which has 14 tracks including “Semetease ,” “Mommetie,” “Mmofra Yi,” and “Mensi Den” was released in 2004 with a social responsibility project CHILD AID (Thousand Kids Off The Street Project) which is currently on-going in collaboration with some volunteers. It has a Dutch, Robert Van-den, as its director and Dorcas Annor assisting with Noble Nketia as an ambassador.
Noble Nketia was decorated as a Youth Peace Ambassador in September 2006 during the mounting of the “Peace Pole” 55.5 feet high at KNUST.
His album “My Vision” was adjudged the best gospel album of the year 2005/2006 and “Semetease” won best Gospel Song of the year, both by the Ghana Music Awards. He also won the Ceval Gospel Music Award for the best album of the year 2006.
Noble Nketia is currently working on his fourth album which he hopes would be out by June, 2007. The new album will be released at the official launch on his website.
For his plans, Noble Nketia would soon be going on a national tour in aid of the street child. The occasion would be used to draw the attention of people to the project and educate the public on the need for peace not only in Ghana, but Africa and the world at large.
He also plans to study music at the University of Education, Winneba.
Asked about his inspirers he said “While growing up I loved the music of people like Michael Jackson but when I became a Christian, I turned to listening to foreign gospel music and local music of Daughters of Glorious Jesus. Currently I look up to learning any music I lay hands on, open my eyes and ears wide and look up to God as to what he wants me to do and God has always been my inspirer.”
“It is God’s favour that has brought me this far. Without God’s favour I would never have been where I am. Secondly humility, patience, hardwork and commitment have greatly contributed to my success,” he added.
Noble Nketia who knows a little about the keyboard, plays the percussion is now learning to play the guitar has performed in a number of countries including Canada where he performed during the 75th anniversary of the Assemblies of God Church. He is a member of the Assemblies of God Church and is married to Eunice, a social worker, currently in France. Noble recently performed at the President’s Show in both Accra and Kumasi as part of the Ghana at 50 celebrations.
With his 11 years experience in music, Noble Nketia writes music the way he thinks it should go. He does soul music, cool but sometimes does contemporary. His hobbies include football, swimming, reading and travelling. Banku with any good soup or pepper goes for his best food.
