Celestine Donkor is a popular Ghanaian gospel musician
Award-winning Ghanaian gospel musician Celestine Donkor has shared how she almost quit music early in her career after being told that plus-size people can never make hit songs.
Speaking in an interview with TV3 on February 18, 2026, she spoke on some of the challenges she faced from critics during her early days in music.
Celestin Donkor recalled how she faced hatred among her peers in her church choir due to her getting more popularity due to her talent.
“That time I was young and very talented… So, I got a lot of love… When you’re singing and your song is ‘giving,’ they throw money on you. So, I’m always that girl who receives a lot of money from the congregation. I got a lot of hate among people from the choir.
“One of the things that is very common in choir is when somebody stands out and the person is good, he’s always the one leading; he’s always people’s favourite. They get that kind of hate,” she recalled.
Meet Celestine Donkor’s 82-year-old mother who composed songs on her album
The “Agbebolo” hitmaker further recalled a painful situation in her early days as a solo musician when she received feedback from some advisors telling her to lose weight, as ‘plus-size’ artistes cannot make hits.
“One of the feedback I got was that I should lose weight because plus sizes can’t be a hit. And that really was hard for me because I’m plus-size. I’ve always been big since I was born,” she said.
The advice, according to her, broke her spirits and motivation to do music.
“It crushed me for some time. I stopped thinking about writing and singing. I was so focused on losing weight to appeal to people,” she added.
It was until Celestine Donkor came across a video from American gospel musician Tasha Cobbs for her hit song, “Break Every Chain,” that things changed for her.
“At that time, she was bigger than I was. So, I put whatever I was doing to lose weight because it wasn’t even working anyway. So that video from Tasha Cobbs broke that thing over my life, and I picked up from where I left,” she narrated.
ID/AM
Meanwhile, watch GhanaWeb’s exposé on the ‘dark side of Kayamata’ and its devastating impact
