Artiste withdraws from bias National Gospel Music Awards

Fast-rising Artiste, Florene Adooni has boycotted the National Gospel Music Awards ahead of the programme today.

Her last-minute withdrawal from the Award Scheme according to her handlers is as a result of the ill-treatment meted out to her by organisers of the award event.

Speaking to this website on the decision to boycott the awards after several weeks of campaigning and awareness creation, the manager of the artiste, Kofi Asante indicated that organisers of the awards scheme have not been fair to his artiste.

He noted that there have been several instances of bias in the process of organising the event noting that because his artiste is upcoming she has been treated as a second-class human being.

"The organisers have been biased towards my artiste in several ways and it is sad. There have been several instances of bias and we can't sit and not do anything about it. There have several event flyers of the programme that is projecting all nominees but there has never been a flyer that has the face of my artiste.

I have called organisers severally about this issue but they paid a deaf ear to my plea. I've seen the advert for the event that also has photos of the nominees but my artiste is also left out in the advert which to me I think is a big disrespect."

He indicated that the straw that broke the camel's back is the fact that event organisers could not contact his team on their tickets and how the event will go.

Kofi Asante said "What even triggered our decision to boycott this award is the fact that the organisers never contacted us on ticket reservation and other things about the event. When I called them, the man I spoke to was shocked that I had not received my ticket because other nominees had taken their tickets. He then said the information was sent to the award scheme's WhatsApp group which myself and my artiste were not added since day one".

He noted that organisers have not treated them fairly and the best decision for his team is to boycott the award because, from all indications, organisers do not see them as part of the awards scheme.

He apologised to the teeming followers of Florence who wasted their time and resources to vote but indicated that there are better things to come up the way of his artiste.

Florence Adooni, was nominated for the best traditional song in the maiden edition of the National Gospel Music Awards.

Her song, ‘Nyam Deke Nsure’ won her a spot in the maiden edition of the awards scheme which has been instituted to acknowledge the work of gospel artistes in Ghana.

Florence was in the same category with names such as SP Kofi Sarpong, Kwadwo Nkansah, Nicholas Omane Acheampong, Brother Sammy, Mary Agyemang and ABC.