Comment: Protracted Vodafone Ghana Music Awards! Who takes the blame?

The Vodafone Ghana Music Awards which came off last Saturday at the Accra International Conference Centre has been labeled by a section of the general public as “boring” citing the long duration of the event as the reason.

Arguably, the change of acts and a possibility of artistes exceeding the time allocated to them to perform were some of the factors that led to the dragging nature of the event.

However, I suggest that the event dragged because some personalities who were called upon to present awards ended up giving long, needless and unscripted speeches.

I observed that some spent more than three minutes on stage before going ahead with their main purpose. And since they were on live television, there was very little the organizers could do. Should we blame event organizers for this? I am sure they knew exactly what to do on stage. Why then did they digress knowing that people were there mainly because of the awards? Why didn’t they go straight to the point, in carrying out the main purpose for which they were on stage than commenting and lecturing on issues not so related to the music fraternity?

When Freddy Anang, a UK based businessman and Ghanaian actor, Lydia Forson were called to present the Gospel Song of the year award, they spent three minutes talking about something unrelated to the event before calling for the nominees to be shown on the screens.

While Mr. Anang was singing praises to himself, Ms. Forson seized the opportunity to remember the 147 lives lost in Kenya. And I am sure you remember her saying, “I’m not supposed to do this but I’m on a live TV…they can’t kick me out”. Well…

Ace broadcaster, Abeiku Aggrey Santana was on stage with Gospel artiste, DSP Kofi Sarpong to present the award for Best Collaboration. To my utmost surprise, he ended up giving a political speech and sang praises to some industry players for four minutes. Was that scripted? Did the organizers ask him to do that?

President of the Musicians Union of Ghana, Bice Osei Kuffour, popularly known as Obour before presenting the Gospel Artiste of the Year award used three minutes to inform the audience about what his administration has achieved so far plus his decision to contest for the MUSIGA presidency for a second time.

I ask: couldn’t he have been brief enough? I am sure he could have compressed his long speech into his last statement, “I’m happy to announce and I’m inspired that the journey continues; the work is still on…it is not complete until it is complete. Come election, I will make myself available to contest for the presidency of the Musicians Union of Ghana”. The list goes on and on and on. But check this out!

When movie producer and actor, Yvonne Nelson and former Big Brother housemate, Bassey were called upon to present the Best International Act award, there was no delay. Same as Chief Marketing Director of Vodafone, Agnes Essah and Deputy Minister for Culture, Creative Arts and Tourism, Honourable Elizabeth Ofosu Agyare who presented the Most Popular Song award.

Actor, Christabel Ekeh and Victoria Michaels who presented the award for New Artiste of the Year spent less than a minute in doing that. So why couldn’t the others stick to the purpose for which they were on stage?

I am not saying there should not be that flexibility for presenters of awards to say something than to present the awards. Before they went on stage, they knew exactly why they were there. Why then should your “speech” be that lengthy? If all the presenters of the awards had stuck to their purpose on stage, I am sure they could have saved us an hour. And this could have saved the “boring” image of the show.