VGMA board members don’t know anything about music – Gasmilla

In less than 24 hours, the prestigious Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) will be awarding deserving artistes who have worked hard in the year under review.

The awards have not come without controversies surrounding it, and this year, which is not different from other years, Hiplife artiste Milla Odartei Lamptey known as Gasmilla in showbiz has added his voice to the controversies by slamming the board of the VGMAs for what he says is the lack of knowledge about music.

“For me, I don’t trust the system, I don’t trust the board itself because they give awards to some songs which are not deserving. They gave Shatta Wale’s ‘Dancehall King’ song ‘Dancehall Song of the Year’ which didn’t deserve because that particular song was an ‘Afrobeats song’ and not dancehall song” he explained.

Gasmilla who was speaking on UTV's 'Atuu' programme with Abeiku Santana advised the VGMA board to always consider the drum pattern of a song to know which genre it belongs to.

“The drum pattern dictates the song and what the song gets. If I’m a dancehall artiste and I have a hit song which is pop, I need to be awarded for the hit song (pop) and not what I do (dancehall). If I release a highlife song and you are awarding me, you should award me based on my highlife song and not hip-life or azonto” he said.

According to Gasmilla, even though hit song ‘Telemo’ was consistent for about nine-months, he never received any award at the 18th edition of the VGMAs.

He said he does not ‘trust’ the award scheme but acknowledges that the awards, generally, helps the musicians to realise that they are working for something at the end else it will be like just releasing songs and playing without any motivation.

Gasmilla noted that when musicians consistently criticise the VGMA organisers and its board, they will do things better.

The 19th edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) comes off on Saturday 14th April, at the Accra International Conference Center.