PRO for Charterhouse, Robert Klah has explained why only two songs released in December 2024 were deemed eligible for consideration under the Swing Period rule for the 2026 Telecel Ghana Music Awards.
Speaking in an interview with GhanaWeb, Klah said the swing period, a policy that allows great songs released late in a calendar year to be considered, was the product of years of deliberation before the board finally moved to implement it.
"After several years of conversation, the board decided to execute it, and clearly we can see two songs benefiting from it," he said.
The two songs in question are Sarkodie's ‘Messiah’ featuring Kweku Flick and Kojo Blak's ‘Excellence’ featuring Kelvyn Boy, both of which were released around December 24 and 25.
Accoring to Klah, this left little time to accumulate the kind of airplay and cultural impact typically expected of award contenders within the same year.
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Robert Klah argued that the timing of a release should not be a reason to discount a song's genuine impact, pointing out that the swing period exists precisely to protect such works from falling through the cracks.
He cited the case of Kojo Blak, a new artiste whose track, ‘Excellence’, shot up despite its late release. He described this as remarkable and worthy of recognition.
"From a new artiste, you can also imagine, for a song to be able to climb that particular height, you can imagine that, okay, so this song with all this impact, should we let it go? No," Klah said.
He concluded that the cultural footprint both songs left within the year of their release was the deciding factor in extending them eligibility under the swing period framework.
"It had a cultural impact within the year under review, and that's the reason why the swing period is able to accommodate this," he said.
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