Music awards spark controversy

Controversy has ensued over the 16th edition of the
Ghana Music Awards nominations list after it was
announced in Accra Friday night at a ceremony
attended by key industry players.
Misgivings have been expressed about why some
names were missing in some of the categories as
well as the justification for placing certain songs
under categories they ought not to have belonged.
The enviable Overall Best Artiste of the Year
category is being competed for by Daddy Lumba,
Stonebwoy, Guru, Edem, MzVee, Sarkodie and
Samini.
Sarkodie had the highest number of nominations in
the 25 categories, followed by Edem and
Stonebwoy who seems to be having a jolly good
time, with a lot of people tipping him as a very
strong contender.
Reggie Rockstone and VVIP
The hiplife Grand Papa complained that his song
with VVIP, ‘Selfie’, had been placed under the hiplife
category whereas the song, according to him, is a
hip-hop song.
“‘Selfie’ is not a hiplife song; place it anywhere
except hiplife. I am the originator of hiplife and I
know what hiplife is. ‘Selfie’ is not hiplife but the
VGMA Board, on their own, decided to place it under
hiplife although we submitted the song for the hip-
hop category,” Rockstone complained after the
announcement of the list.
SAMINI
Samini’s nomination for the Reggae/Dancehall
Artiste of the Year category has sparked a huge
public debate, with many asking which Reggae or
Dancehall song qualified him for that category.
Indeed, his hit track, ‘Iskoki’, was surprisingly
placed under the category of Hiplife Song of the
Year, disqualifying it from the Reggae/Dancehall
category.
A more critical look at the list, however, shows that
Kaakie and Episode both have nominations for
Reggae/Dancehall Artiste when they did not have
any songs competing for Reggae/Dancehall Song of
the Year.
AKOO NANA & CASTRO
Akoo Nana was also seen fuming and almost
caused a scene after the nominations list was
announced and his hit track with Castro, “Mi
Yadaw”, was missing from the list.
Akoo and many others believe “Mi Yadaw” was
popular within the calendar year and made enough
impact to have earned it at least a nomination.
There were speculations that Akoo’s recent brawl
with Charterhouse, the organisers, may have
caused his elimination from the list though he had a
mega track.
Several pundits have also questioned Castro’s
absence from the Artiste of the Year category
though he enjoyed a huge audience appeal and had
some hit tracks in 2014.
Chase Forever
The smooth singer has expressed disappointment
with the 2015 nominations for Ghana Music Awards.
According to him, the nominations were a reflection
of claim that the awards ceremony is based on
popularity rather than an award scheme which
seeks to honour and encourage talents.
This musician gave this as the reason he did not
make it on the nominations list of the 2015 edition of
the awards ceremony.
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When contacted on Saturday, Chase told NEWS-
ONE that to him the awards ceremony was ‘not
credible.’
“…Ghana Music Awards or whatever; I think is not
credible to me because I feel like the people who
really work hard never see the light of day in that
place.
“It is just for a few people who are shining… It is
like a popularity awards. You take the Grammies;
somebody like Beck was nominated and people
here don’t even know who Beck is, to the extent
where Kanye West was able to say that Beck does
not even deserve it. It is not a popularity award,
you understand. People actually sit down and write
music, so can’t you take your time and listen to
songs word by word? … They don’t know what they
are doing. And if the song sounds exotic or foreign
you must still sit down and listen to it. It is not
acapella; there is a producer who worked on it, and
there is an engineer who worked on it,” he
expressed his disappointment for not getting on the
nominations list.
GALAXY
Another major disappointment that has been
expressed is how Galaxy, the most popular duo on
the music block, did not make it to the Best New
Artiste(s) of the Year category. Galaxy, under the
calendar year, had its hit song, Holla At Me, all over
the airwaves and the group played a lot of shows
yet did not make the list.
That category had names such as Episode, Pappy
Kojo, MzVee, Emelia Arthur, Wiyaala and Vybrant
Faya competing for the award.
Best Collaboration of the Year
As per the category definition of Best Collaboration
of the Year, the two or more musicians who came
together for that collaboration ought to have
generated a huge public impact and appeal. It is
therefore shocking that the VGMA Board settled on
gospel song ‘Alpha & Omega’ by Selina Boateng,
featuring Uncle Ato, for this category.
It makes it look as though the Board was only doing
the gospel fraternity a favour rather than
nominating the song based on the strength of its
collaboration.
Such a decision gives credence to the complaint
from Akoo Nana with regard to how his
collaboration with Castro, “Mi Yadaw”, did not make
it though it made a huge impact in the calendar
year.
Amazingly, the VGMA Board decided that ‘Alpha &
Omega’ by Selina Boateng featuring Uncle Ato made
more impact than “Mi Yadaw” by Akoo Nana and
Castro and therefore nominated it to compete with
‘Koene’ by Edem featuring Ice Queen and Lil
Shaker, ‘Baby Dance’ by 4X4 featuring Davido,
‘Adonai (Remix)’ by Sarkodie featuring Castro,
‘Seihor’ by Castro featuring D-Black, ‘Love Rocks’
by Sarkodie featuring Samini and ‘Baafira’ by
Stonebwoy featuring Sarkodie.