Diana Hamilton: I don’t want trouble over copyright
In an industry where the line between worship and copyright infringement has become increasingly contested, Diana Hamilton is making one thing clear, she picks up the phone first.
The award-winning Ghanaian gospel musician sat down with Kwame Dadzie on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z recently, and what emerged was a candid, behind-the-scenes account of the lengths she goes to before weaving another artist’s song into her performances or recordings.
Her approach, she explained, is simple and non-negotiable: ask.
“I remember quite recently I did a Pentecostal Praise with Sofo Kyei Boate and there was a song by Francis Agyei that I sang with him on that wasn’t my song. I was a backing vocalist for him. But before I felt like it, I picked a phone and I called him and told him I was doing a medley of songs and wanted to start with his, and he said I should go ahead,” she recounted.
But not every call ends with a yes. During preparations for a live performance at the Experience Concert, Hamilton had already secured permission to perform Nsenkyerene Nyankopon — a Pentecost song — when in the moment, she felt moved to include a song by a Nigerian artist. The stage performance happened. The permission did not come in time. And when her management later reached out to secure rights for the recording, the rights holder said no.
The solution was straightforward, if painstaking.
“So we cut that portion out as I had done it on stage without her knowing because I don’t want trouble,” she said.
That phrase, “I don’t want trouble”, captures something important about Hamilton’s philosophy. It is not just legal caution. It is a matter of professional respect, one she extends even when the practicalities make it difficult.
She described a similar situation involving the beloved hymn Days of Elijah, which she performed at the Experience Concert purely because the moment called for it, not for monetisation, not for reproduction, but because it fit.
“I did it on stage not because I wanted to reproduce it or monetise it. But I felt on the night of Experience Concert that song fit in beautifully. And I didn’t have the chance to go ask her before putting it in my set. But my point was, if they allowed me to do it, great. If they didn’t, I just sang it on the night and let it go away,” she said.
There is also a Jesse Dickson song sitting in her archive, a performance she has been unable to release simply because she has not yet been able to track down the rightful owner to seek clearance.
“I have been turned down, I have been allowed. I have both experiences. But I will always make sure that I had sought permission before I do that,” she said.
Hamilton’s comments come at a moment when the question of intellectual property in gospel music has moved from quiet industry tension to open debate. Churches and gospel musicians have increasingly found themselves at odds over the use of copyrighted worship songs, raising a deeper question about whether music created in the name of evangelism and praise should be governed by the same commercial copyright frameworks as secular work.
It is a conversation without easy answers. But for Diana Hamilton, whatever the outcome of that broader debate, her own position is already settled.
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