Who is Celestine?

Gospel music lover have in many occasions heard various Ewe renditions on different albums by different gospel artists. Artists such as Joe Bless, Isaiah Kwadwo Ampong, Rev. Prince Nyarko and most recently Philipa Baafi-Karkari to mention a few that give our Ewe relatives and many others a good run for their money.

Very little is known or heard about the lady behind all these works, she has also been the backing vocalist of most of the popular gospel musics that are making the headlines now a-days. The likes of The Great Ampong, Cee, Pastor Lenny Akpadi, Pastor Josh Laryea, Balaman among others have all enjoyed the backing vocal works of this lady in question.

Celestine Donkor aka Gospel Soldier is the proud daughter of the Volta region doing her region proud. Born to Elder Gabriel Akakpo and Mrs. Hanna Akakpo, Celestine schooled at St Augustine's Preparatory/JS School in Abeka Lapaz after which she enrolled at Nsaaniya Secondary Business School at Kasoa for her senior secondary certificate. It took the generous nature of the boxing legend and African's only Hall famer Barima Azumah Nelson and the International Solid foundation Ministry to see her through her secondary education as the family in serious financial crisis.

At the age of sixteen and still in her second circle education, she came in contact with Mr. Fred Kyei Mensah aka Fredyma who brought her into the music industry as backing vocalist. In her words 'meeting Fredyma was the beginning of my music career although before I met him I was already singing at Church and at church crusades'. She continued 'he guided me as to the studio business'.

When asked about how her music career has been, the Gospel Soldier has this to say 'I sing for the passion of it and to glorify my maker and for me this is very paramount before any other thing'.  She continued 'mistakenly most people know me as a backing vocalist sort of but you Know I don't blame them'. Asked how many artists she is worked for she has this to say 'I can't mention any number but I have worked with most of the top gospel musicians of today'. The question of why her latest album 'gye woadie' seem not to be doing well on the local market she said 'it is purely a marketing problem and not the product content, the strategy my management team put up just did not work here in Ghana but it did very well in UK and elsewhere. It suffered from what I will call the 'payola syndrome' which is killing the industry here.'

The question of why she does so well when it comes to singing in ewe, this was her response, 'I am a full blooded Ewe and I love singing in my mother language, but hey watch out I did something in Hausa with Ampong on his latest album'. She did not hide her joy in singing in other languages such as Twi, Ga and English. She hinted that she is learning some other foreign languages so as to be able to sing everywhere in the world without much difficulty since 'all Christians serve the same God with one gospel the might be differences in ideologies as to the interpretations of certain doctrines, the gospel must reach all nations, all tribes and people' she said.

She express her profound gratitude to the most high God who gave the talent freely, she also thanked all the artists that featured her in their various projects for their faith in her abilities most especially Bandex music production. As to her relationship with Philipa Baafi she has this to say 'she is my big Sis, there is oneness that exists between our families, we have much more respect for each other and she is a nice person to know'.

She also has these nice words for her fans, 'you are the greatest people on planet earth, without your encouragement, prayer and support I wouldn't being here, my management is putting a show together for me to tell you, my fans how much I think of you so please watch out!'

Celestine is married to Mr. Emmanuel Donkor an import and exporter and they have two beautiful girls, Ohemaa and Maa Adwoa.