Climbing the Steps to the Musical Stage

Dengiyefa Akene started his musicaljourney at the back of the stage,playing drums. He was influencedby his sister’s husband, who is anationally known gospel singer.“I always looked up to him, and Ialways wanted to be a singer,” saysDengi, as he is known, so his musicalaspirations were clear.

It wasn’t until he became a worship leader about four years ago in his local church in Hamilton, Ontario, that Dengi’s dreams start being realized. About a year later he started writing songs. He now has over 80, with 10 of them being published. The first was the single River of Worship in 2016, and then the 5-song EP YOUR LOVE, and two singles Get Back Up and God’s Got Me Covered followed in 2017. And at the end of April this year, SMJ was at the Lincoln Alexander Centre in downtown Hamilton, for the video and single release of YAHWEH.

Dengi says that YAHWEH comes from the same place as all of his compositions; daily experiences or life struggles. He had just come home dead tired from a birthday party, but decided to go downstairs and fool around on his keyboard. All of a sudden the words came to him, and he had the song written in five minutes. Dengi usually looks up the scriptural reference to his songs, but this time he thought there was something special about the lyrics. He was shocked to find that the words in Revelation 1: 8 nearly matched word-for-word what he had written!

“I am the Alpha and the Omega, says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.”

It is not a scripture that Dengi has read much beforehand, and that is the point of this song: Dengi does not want to connect just with church-going Christians, but those who are wrestling with their faith or back-sliding Christians who have stopped being regular attenders. His message is simple:

“Yahweh talks about who God is, and what everyone may be wondering about God, in words that everyone can relate to.”

Everyone can also relate to the fact that most young performing artists are not relying solely on their craft for several years after they start their careers. Dengi started a t-shirt company called Fearless Worshipper on the side, once again, reaching out to those who have fallen away from the church, or those who are curious but reluctant to start attending. He also has a love of food, and opened his own restaurant. It lasted for a short period of time until he had a life-altering experience.

Just as he was graduating from high school, his mother noticed that Dengi was drinking a lot of water. The decision was made to go to the hospital when the drinking really became excessive. There the family found out that Dengi had symptoms of malaria and was Type 1 Diabetic. His blood sugar count was sky high, and Dengi’s mother was kept out of the emergency room while the doctors worked on what was becoming a life-and-death situation. Oblivious to all this was Dengi himself, who had his headphones on and was listening to gospel music. Later the doctors told his mother that they marveled that Dengi was able to pull through but attributed his survival to the calmness he displayed because of the music playing in his head. Dengi commented:

That experience gave me the chills.Music not only saved my life but it has kept me busy the past few years instead of being in the street doing things I shouldn’t be doing. It made me stay focused on what God has called me to do.

Dengi describes himself as a passionate person, not only about God, his gift of music, his wife and daughter, but about life and people in general. It showed when he took the stage for a 45-minute set at the Lincoln Alexander. After the opening number, he asked the audience, “you wouldn’t mind if I worshipped a bit?” and then launched into an exquisite cover version of William McDowell’s Take me to that Secret Place, featuring beautiful solos by Geoff Bell on cello and Jonathan Morris on piano. His voice just soared over his competent dual female backup singers and band (the DNA Project) on You have Won the Victory, The set closed with the viewing of the YAHWEH video. Clocking in at around ten minutes, the video illustrated the very touching comradery in the recording studio among all the participants, both in front of and behind the microphone.

It was also mentioned that evening that YAHWEH would be going immediately into regular rotation on the GTA Christian contemporary and gospel radio station Joy 1250 AM. In addition, Dengi’s music is now being played in England and Nigeria, and he will be supporting the latter with a radio and TV tour of Nigeria in August of 2018.

There is no doubt that Dengiyefa Akene and his music are on the rise, and after his recent health scare, he is definitely the namesake of his t-shirt company, Fearless Worshipper. To find out more about Dengiyefa Akene, go to: www.dengiefagospelmusic.com