Sarkodie, Stonebwoy and Shatta Wale, possible nominees for BET Awards 2016

The Vodafone Ghana Music Awards is starring at us right in the face, a clear indication and a reminder that the most visible and vibrant Ghanaian musicians will be looking forward to perhaps a nomination in the only category that recognizes most African artists, Best International Act, Africa at the BET Awards 2016 which holds on the 26th of June 2016 at the Microsoft Theatre in the United States of America.

Ahead of that, we at www.nydjlive.com make some predictions as to which Ghanaian artist is likely to secure a nomination.

For successive years, Ghanaians have secured slots on the nominations list with Sarkodie winning twice. Stonebwoy at his first nomination also beat stiff competition to pick up the Best International Act, Africa in 2015.

With the kind of work put out by these two, I would not be surprised to see them nominated for this year’s edition of the BET Awards.

Sarkodie

Although not been too loud in Ghana over the past year, the BET award winner has proven beyond doubt that he remains a strong force to reckon with, not only in Ghana, but Africa and the rest of the world. Selling out shows in Ghana, UK, USA and other parts of the world, his works are very visible and have already been commended by other Viacom channels.

Stonebwoy

Coming from winning major gongs from last year, Stonebwoy seems to be on different speed lane. Perhaps, on a B Speed (remember, the Super Mario game?) VGMA, AFRIMMA, BET and several others got the adrenaline high as he continued to sell out shows and concerts all over.

For any reggae and dancehall artiste, joining Gramps Morghan on a tour would be a dream and that’s exactly what the BHIM Nation president, did.

His name remains fresh in the minds of many worldwide and eyes are still watching. A nomination would not come as a surprise.

Shatta Wale

One other artiste who easily comes to mind as a possible contender is none other than the current ‘bad boy’ of Ghanaian music, Charles Nii Armah aka Shatta Wale.

Although many have argued that his exclusion from the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards will hinder his chances of securing a BET nomination, it is necessary to state emphatically that organizers of the Ghana Music Awards have neither a business relation nor effect on the BET and its awards. These are two separate organizations with different orientations. The argument is therefore flawed on several fronts.

According to another school of thought, artist of the year winners at the past VGMAs have gone on to secure nominations at the BETs. Well, what happened in 2014 when Shatta Wale picked up artist of the year at the VGMA? Let’s disabuse own minds of the VGMA-BET relation. Nothing exists!!

Have we also forgotten about Kojo Antwi and D Black? In 2011 when the two secured their nominations, none had won artist of the year.

It is without doubt that Shatta Wale has over the past three years grown to be loved by many worldwide either for his music or his ‘wild’ character.

A nomination could just be starring in his face and I know that will be a chance for the SM fans to hit back at the VGMAS.

Even though, we at www.nydjlive.com list three artists from Ghana, we are yet to find out three artists from the same country being nominated in the Best International Act, Africa category. Should it be reduced to two, who gets out?

Now how does one get nominated?

There is a voting academy made up of about 500 people from the music industry, media, and bloggers. BET sends out ballots electronically and voters nominate in all the different categories who they think should be award nominees.

These are collated by a group called “Yangaroo” that works on other awards shows as well, and they narrow it to the top five nominees, and send that list back out to the academy to vote on the winner.