Dentaa, a female media guru worth celebrating

This week’s edition of Celebrations with Ebenezer Narh Affum will focus on Dentaa Amoateng who is popularly known as Dentaa in the showbiz industry. She can be described as an award-winning British-Ghanaian entrepreneur, actress, TV presenter, singer, producer and manager. Dentaa was born in Juaso, in the Ashanti Region of Ghana, but moved with her family to the UK at the age of five.

From a young age, she enjoyed performing in school plays and talent shows and so it comes as no surprise what she currently does in the Arts and Creative Industry. She took her GCSEs at the Walthamstow School for Girls and A Levels (Media Studies, Sociology and Performing Arts) at the Leyton Sixth Form College. She went on to study for a degree in paediatric nursing at Buckinghamshire New University. I need to emphasize that while in school, she took her studies serious and came out with flying colors.

As a singer, she released ”Wu Ye Nyame”, a Gospel Album in 2005. The album did quite well as it received airplay on most radio stations across the country. The album was produced and released by Alordia Promotions and Goodies Music Production. The album received airplay on radio stations in Ghana and Dentaa supported the release with a global tour which turned out to be very successful.

In the field of acting, she has appeared on British TV shows including EastEnders and Holby City. She has also starred in Judge John Deed, Run Baby Run, and Prime Suspect. She then moved into presenting, hosting television programmes on British and Ghanaian TV including The Dentaa Show and reality TV music competition Mentor IV.

“The Dentaa Show” is a 30-minute syndicated magazine programme, broadcast on Sky Channel 155, was filmed in front of a live audience and split into three segments exploring the Ghanaian and African entertainment scene through interviews with celebrities, coverage of entertainment events and a focus on the latest music chart videos. The show was Ghana’s most-watched entertainment programme and in its first year, scored the highest ratings in first-run syndication in the 18 – 40 years demographic, out-performing established talk shows. The Dentaa Show ran for three seasons.

She also co-hosted Miss Ghana UK in 2007 and the following year became a co-host on the fourth series of Mentor —on Ghanaian TV channel TV3, alongside Kofi Okyere Darko. In 2009, she co-hosted the Ghana Music Awards, performing a duet with Samini, and in 2010 presented Ghana’s first make-over show, Darling Beauty Diaries. She did not, however, return for the fifth series of Mentor in 2010 as she was by then pregnant with her second child. In August 2012, it was announced that Dentaa would be making a return to TV with new weekly show Dinner with Dentaa, which features celebrity guests cooking for her.

Dentaa has a strong connection to the world of football. She is the Manager of Ghana and former Sunderland striker Asamoah Gyan, and played an “influential role” in helping Ghana’s national football team, popularly known as the Black Stars, secured the services of Arsenal midfielder Emmanuel Frimpong.

Dentaa’s work in the sporting arena was recognized in 2011, when she was nominated for the 2011 Black List Awards — a UK-based awards scheme that acknowledges the contribution of the black community for achievements across all levels of football, and which is supported by the Football Association, Professional Footballers’ Association and Black Collective of Media in Sport (BCOMS), among others. Her management of Gyan and influence in the signing of Frimpong to the Ghana national team were “key factors” in her nomination.

In May 2012, she organized the launch of the Benjani Mwaruwari Foundation, set up by Portsmouth and Zimbabwe national football team striker Benjani Mwaruwari to build a football academy for underprivileged youths in Zimbabwe. The following month, in June 2012, Dentaa helped the Arthur Wharton Foundation present a statuette of Arthur Wharton — the first professional black football player — to FIFA President Sepp Blatter. The Arthur Wharton Marquette Statue is now displayed in the presidents’ lounge at FIFA headquarters in Zurich.

Outside of broadcasting, Dentaa is known as the founder and CEO of non-profit organization the Ghana UK Based Achievement (GUBA) Awards which organizes an annual awards ceremony in Britain recognizing the ‘hugely significant’ contribution that British-Ghanaians make to society. Dentaa founded the awards in 2009 with the first awards ceremony taking place in London, England, in October 2010. Dentaa, who describes herself as a “proud Ghanaian”, had the idea to set up the awards as she felt that there was “nothing out there promoted and enriched my heritage”.

GUBA was the first ceremony of its kind to specifically recognize Ghanaian achievement and has since been endorsed by dignitaries and organizations including The Ghana High Commission to the UK & Ireland, The British High Commission in Ghana, The Ghana Ministry of Tourism, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair and wife Cherie, Lord Paul Boateng, Diane Abbott MP and FIFA President Sepp Blatter.

Dentaa’s achievements with GUBA were acknowledged in 2011 when she was announced as one of the “Young Social Entrepreneurs of the Year” in the annual Future 100 Awards, and again in 2013 when she received the African Women in Europe (AWE) Award. Dentaa was also nominated for two categories at the annual Women4Africa awards to be held in London in May 2014. She was awarded an MBE in Her Majesty The Queen; Elizabeth II’s 2016 Birthday Honors.