Nominee list for Ghana Gospel Industry Awards released

The latest event coming from the stable of the Tema-based business unit is the Ghana Gospel Industry Awards (GGIA).

Even before the maiden edition comes off on July 9, 2011 at the National Theatre in Accra, management of Adom FM is aiming at making GGIA the best known organization behind the gospel music industry’s most prestigious honour.

According to Lawrence Tamakloe, Events and Promotions executive at Adom FM, “the GGIA aims at encouraging excellence in the gospel music industry through a range of coveted awards”.

While the crystal plaques on offer – symbol to be admired around the world – are aimed at acknowledging the very best level of achievement, every other form of the GGIA recognition, be it a certificate or other form of trophy, is targeted at carrying significance like none other in the gospel music industry in Ghana.

The awards Academy, made up of music and entertainment experts tasked to review entries, has released the final list of nominees in 17 categories covering a whole range of gospel musical activities like songs, videos and albums will be honoured on July 9.

The final nominations, published by the Academy, show a potentially fierce contest among Cecelia Marfo, No Tribe, Christiana Love, Florence Obinim and Ernest Opoku.

Cecelia Marfo, who shot to fame with the popular Afunumu Ba track, received seven nominations spread across the public voting and the academy voting categories.

She received nominations for Album of the Year; Song of the Year; Artiste of the Year; Popular Video of the Year; Female Vocalist of the Year; Best Gospel Song Writer of the Year and Collaboration of the Year.

No Tribe is in strong contention for Album of the Year; Artiste of the Year and Popular Video of the Year. The leader of the group, Nacy is also the frontrunner for the Gospel Sound Engineer of the Year and Gospel Producer of the Year awards respectively.

Florence Obinim and Princess Ifeoma are also strong contenders for the Album of the Year and Song of the Year awards respectively. The pair could also pick the Collaboration of the Year and Popular Video of the Year awards with the God Never Fails track.

The New Artiste of the Year category is a straight fight between Herty Borngreat, Nana Akorsa and Cwasi Oteng, with the Frimpong Brothers as the outsiders.

One of the hottest categories will be the Collaboration of the Year, where Ceccy Twum/Nacy, Florence Obinim/Princess Ifeoma, Cecelia Marfo/Ernest Opoku and Cee/Isaac/Ampong will slug it out.

The GGIA will also honour outstanding personalities that have contributed immensely to the growth and development of the gospel industry with the Honorary Award of the year.

The academy’s vote will constitute 60% of the total vote while the remaining 40% will be determined by the general public vote (via txt).