George Quaye admits he amplified VGMA bribery claims as a PR strategy
Former Charterhouse Public Relations Officer George Quaye has revealed that a statement made nearly a decade ago, claiming that some gospel artistes attempted to bribe their way into the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMAs), was a calculated PR stunt deliberately amplified to spark conversations around the awards scheme.
Speaking in an interview on Joy FM’s Showbiz A-Z on July 18, 2026, George Quaye explained that although the claim was based on his experience while working with the Ghana Music Awards, he intentionally escalated the issue to generate discussions about the awards.
According to him, the controversy started after an episode of GHOne’s “The Pundits” programme, in which there was a discussion about “The Dark Side of GH Music,” where he discussed issues within the music industry and mentioned that any attempts to influence him through bribery during his time working on the Ghana Music Awards came from the gospel side.
“I remember back in the day when I was with Charterhouse and GHOne, where I was the host for the pundits. We had done an episode called ‘The Dark Side of GH Music,’ on which I claimed that if there was ever a time anybody tried to bribe me in my history of working on the Ghana Music Awards, those attempts came from the gospel side,” he said.
However, he revealed that the issue would not have gained nationwide attention if he had not taken steps to amplify it after the programme aired.
He explained that after the episode, he contacted some individuals and encouraged them to push the story further, leading to the widespread discussions that followed.
“How did it become a big issue? It became a big issue because after the show, there were people I called and said, ‘Charlie, I’ve said this on the show, blow it up.’ That’s what people don’t know,” he explained.
George Quaye noted that because the programme aired late at night, it did not initially attract a large audience, but the subsequent amplification turned the issue into a major industry conversation.
“If you go and check, you’ll see. When you ask, they will tell you George called me and said, ‘Blow it up.’ That was a stunt,” he added.
He explained that this was part of a strategy he had used on several occasions while working on publicity for the Ghana Music Awards, where controversies and conversations were sometimes created to increase public interest in the event.
“There were people I used to do that with. I did a lot of that with a lot of people so that we could trigger conversations around the Ghana Music Awards. We did a lot of that,” he stated.
Addressing concerns about whether the stunt could have damaged the reputation of the awards scheme, George Quaye said the risk was calculated, adding that he believed the controversy affected him personally more than the brand.
“No. It could have been detrimental to me. Sometimes you have to weigh the options and decide whether it will affect the brand or affect you. When you yourself are a brand, you can take that kind of risk and protect the event itself,” he said.
He clarified that his original statement was not fabricated but was rather amplified to generate a wider conversation around issues within the industry.
“It doesn’t mean what I said was a lie, but I escalated it. I did that for two reasons. First, I wanted to trigger a conversation around the issue and get it to stop, and it did stop,” he explained.
Gospel artists offer the most bribes for VGMAs – George Quaye
According to him, the controversy eventually led to disagreements among some gospel music stakeholders, with managers of gospel artistes publicly debating the issue.
“Later, some managers of gospel artistes even came on radio to fight each other. I remember one manager who was managing a gospel artiste at the time. They were accusing each other because what I did triggered that conversation,” he added.
George Quaye stressed that he never mentioned any individual or accused a specific artiste of attempting to bribe their way into the awards.
“They knew I did not tell a lie. The gospel community did not like it, but did I suggest they were the people I was referring to? I did not mention anyone,” he said.
Following the backlash, reports emerged that George Quaye had been removed from his role and replaced by Nii Ayi Tetteh-Hammond. However, he denied that the decision was a punishment.
According to him, the move was strategic because the controversy had generated so much attention that it began overshadowing the actual work of promoting the awards scheme.
“No, it wasn’t punishment. Again, it was good for the brand for that particular season of the Ghana Music Awards. Everybody in the country was talking about it every weekend, every day. The eventual gain was for the awards brand,” he said.
He pointed out that the publicity generated from the controversy contributed to the success of that year’s awards, including an opening performance that featured about 10 gospel artistes.
“The publicity was free, it was everywhere, everybody talked about it. It wasn’t exactly negative PR; it just created talkability around the brand,” he said.
George Quaye explained that his role had to be reassigned because media interviews that were meant to focus on the awards scheme had become dominated by questions about the bribery allegation.
“My role had to be taken away because it got to a point where every interview I attended was no longer about the scheme; it was about that issue. The issue was taking over the conversation around the scheme, so somebody else had to step in for things to move forward,” he stated.
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