Ofori Amponsah says music obsessed him So much, he skipped school just to write songs

For Ofori Amponsah, music wasn’t just a passion—it was an obsession. In a heartfelt recollection, the highlife icon revealed just how far he went to chase his dream, even if it meant defying school routines and expectations.

“I’d sometimes walk 20 miles to go sing or record demos. I’d sneak off from school just to be around music,” he confessed. “People thought I would fail, but I was always reading, always writing. Even in the dining hall, I’d be writing songs instead of reading textbooks.”

His love for highlife music grew in the late 1980s. “I started listening to highlife in 1989 while I was still in primary school. Daddy Lumba was fresh at the time,” he said, naming legends like Amakye Dede and Kojo Antwi as key influences on his sound.

Despite doing well academically and even earning a scholarship, Amponsah chose to walk away from formal education. “I told my mom after Form Three that I’d had enough of education. I could read and write, but music was calling me.”

That decision would set him on a path to becoming one of Ghana’s most cherished voices in music.