Ghanaian star Lamisi reveals radical re-invention with new single ‘No Orgasm in Heaven’

Lamisi’s powerful, soulful voice bridges traditional northern Ghanaian rhythms with contemporary sounds. Based in Accra, she leads the Lamisi Fata Foundation, which empowers girls in her home region’s deeply patriarchal society. Her new new album celebrates women’s clapping traditions from northern Ghana while championing female empowerment and social change.

“The women of Zebilla have been teaching me the clapping rhythms that are the basis of so much of their music and dance,” says Lamisi. “Wanlov and I decided to create a project that would combine this ancient artform with traditional acoustic instrumentation and the synthesised vocals that have been popular across Ghana for decades.”

Let Us Clap’s nine tracks flip the script on notions of ‘traditional’ music, finding gold in the intersection between ancient organic grooves and studio-generated electronics, and aeons-old clapping patterns and heavily vocoded vocals. Throughout, tempos push and pull. Tension builds and releases. Tomorrow is in dialogue with the past.

“This music is fresh,” says Wanlov the Kubolor, the project’s musical director, and a Ghanaian/Romanian artist, activist and film‑maker so well known in Ghana that — particularly in busy, sprawling Accra — he stops traffic. “It’s magic music. It is the world that we are coming from.”

It was a slogan painted onto the back of a public bus in Accra that inspired ‘No Orgasm in Heaven’, the album’s clap‑happy first single. “I like working with funny, open‑minded people,” says Wanlov, who is also renowned as one half (with M3NSA) of beloved musical pranksters Fokn Bois. “This song has a similar sentiment to ‘No Beer in Heaven’, the 2004 hit by Atongo Zimba. It means enjoy your life now, as heaven is right here.”

Wanlov’s activism for the rights of LGBT+ people in Ghana is consistent and fearless; with his sibling, the television presenter/model Sister Deborah, and Angel Maxine, the first openly transgender Ghanaian musician, he has used his music to push back against homophobia. His causes — environmentalism, decolonisation, female empowerment — have the people at heart, and fire his own socially conscious music with its trademark satirical raps. With a sound rooted in the urban scene, and in rap and hip‑hop, forward thinking is Wanlov the Kubolor’s stock‑in‑trade.

“Lamisi and I are pushing the limits of what traditional acoustic instruments could do, using the handclaps as the basis for the songs,” he continues. “We wanted to treat her vocals electronically, which is a sound that’s heard all over Ghana, even in the villages.”

At a time in history when rollbacks on gains made in feminism and women’s rights are commonplace, Let Us Clap also serves as a reminder that vigilance — and action — matters.

“I was raised with girls from northern Ghana who would drop out of school to get married and have children. My mother wed at 13 and had six girls,” she says. “Some of my late father’s family basically ignored us all because, for them, it was only boys that mattered. I was fortunate to receive an education and have worked hard to live my dreams. But these girls don’t have the same opportunities. I want to champion their unheard voices.”