Kwame Dadzie
Since the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards nominees list was released, a couple of palpable flaws have been detected. A lot of issues and concerns have also been raised by music aficionados and fans alike, and I have mine too.
Firstly, let me state that I present a gospel show on TV but I am not against the scrapping of the Gospel Album of the Year category. Yes, I see nothing wrong with it. It is either it was taken off [which has been done] or the hip life, reggae, high life, afro pop genres were also given “album of the year” categories.
My headache, however, is the fact that there are question marks on the gospel artiste and song nominated for ‘Artiste of the Year’ and ‘Most Popular Song of the Year’ categories, respectively. I am not sure SP Kofi Sarpong and Nicholas Omane Acheampong’s Aposor were nominated for Artiste of the Year and Most Popular Song of the Year categories respectively, just because they needed to fix in a gospel act.
If that is the case, then the best people from the gospel world to have been nominated, were not those they nominated. To me, in 2015, Patience Nyarko was more visible and had a more popular song (W’afom Kwan) than Kofi Sarpong so she deserved to have at least replaced Kofi Sarpong, if not added to the list of nominees in the Artiste of the Year category.
Obaapa Christie’s Hyebre Sesafuor, for the year under review, was also more popular than Aposor, so should have made it to the Most Popular Song category, if not replace Aposor.
Where I am disappointed Nicholas Omane Acheampong was not nominated is the Song Writer category. He deserved that more than Most Popular Song of the year nomination. Anybody who understands music – making with regards to the text or lyrical composition would agree that Aposor evinces qualities of a song with immaculately written text and satisfies the VGMA criteria.
Again, Obaapa Christie’s Hyebre Sesafuor and Patience Nyarko’s W’afom Kwan were even more popular than EL’s Mi Naa Bo Po in 2015. So, how come that EL’s song made it to the Most Popular Song category at the expense of the two smash hit gospel songs? And I say this, on presumption (they can prove me wrong if I’m lying) that about 90% of the Board members are not keen followers of Gospel music.
They could have added people like Agyemang Prempeh of Rainbow Radio, Fiifi Folson of Sunny FM or Kwamena Idan of Adom FM to the board. These guys know which gospel songs are trending. The Board has Zapp Mallet, Obuor, Diana Hopeson, Kwame Fakye, Nii Ayi Tagoe, Nii Ayite Hammond, Amanzeba, Bessa Simon, Mark Okraku Mante, George Quaye, Doreen Andoh and Theresa Ayoade.
Looking at the list above, I doubt how many of them listen to our local gospel. Madam Diana, I know, is the only gospel person on the board but I doubt if she keenly follows gospel music in Ghana lately.
Mind you, we are not criticizing because we don’t want the VGMA. We are criticizing because as of now it is all we have, and we want to make it better. However, a lot of us are criticizing [with some insulting] Charterhouse and the VGMA Board for the flaws in this year’s nomination but few are proffering solutions to the problems to forestall similar future occurrences.
And this is the result of rote learning in Ghana’s educational system. We lack problem-solving abilities. I reiterate that Charterhouse needs few brains to augment those they have on the board. They should get guest members periodically to help them when need be. The people they choose as board members shouldn’t just be selected based on their knowledge in the rudiments in music or how long they have been in the music industry; at least they must be keen followers of Ghanaian music, and by extension, world music.
There need to be at least two people who are well versed in each genre of music on the Board. Aside, each member should have a bit of knowledge in all the genres.
If there are people on the Board who need to be changed, they should kick them out and bring in new ones. Also, they need to get competent and reliable researchers, spread them across the nation – and let them give periodic feedback and report. The monitoring process should start right at the beginning of the calendar year. Don’t wait till it is time to open nominations before you get your people to start working.
These are just few unpardonable observation I have found with gospel music. Honestly, I am not impressed with the work of the Board this year. Last year, I scored them 85% but this year, I will give them 69.9%. But like I always say, “we can only get better.” So they should get better!
Kwame Dadzie
