VGMA 2020: Dan Lartey questions reggae/dancehall category

Researcher for Remedi Entertainment, Dan Lartey, has questioned the genuineness of the Reggae/Dancehall Artiste of the Year category list which was recently released by the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards board.

According to him, Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy's exclusion from this year’s event has compelled the board to include artistes who barely did nothing significant in the year under review to the list of nominees.

Dan Lartey indicated that with the exception J Derobie, [composer a song titled ‘Poverty’] the others [Episode, Ras Kuuku, AK Songstress etc] were named in that category just to fill in the gap.

He intimated that it’s a known fact that J Derobie’s ‘Poverty’ song really reigned in Ghana but same cannot be said about the other artistes.

“J Derobie’s ‘Poverty’ is the only song that qualifies to be in that category; and I feel because Shatta and Stonebwoy weren’t eligible to participate in this year’s awards, the board lacked heavyweights hence prompting them to name any artiste in that category” Dan stated on 3FM’s ShowBuzz show.

Meanwhile gospel musician Celestine Donkor has also criticized the output of of the board in a similar fashion during a recent interview she had with MzGee on 3FM.

The amiable songstress expressed her disappointment at the VGMA board for not nominating her ‘Agbebolo’ song in the Best Collaboration category.

Celestine argued that her song enjoyed massive airplay both locally and internally, therefore, could not comprehend why it was missing from the category.

The musician, who was clearly peeved by the decision, further took to her Instagram page to vent her spleen.

She wrote, “Dear VGMA, I do appreciate 5 nominations for # Agbebolo. But I’m really surprised this song didn’t pass for Best Collabo. Is it because Nhyiraba Gideon is a child?” she asked.