THE GRILL: VGMA 2017: THE OOHHS, THE AAHHS, AND A CASE OF HE ...

THE GRILL: VGMA 2017: THE OOHHS, THE AAHHS, AND A CASE OF HE ...: Just last Saturday, April 8 th , the much awaited Vodafone Ghana Music Awards came off at the Dome of the Accra International Conference Ce...

THE GRILL: GHANA MUSIC AWARDS: THE GOSPEL DOMINANCE SO FAR

THE GRILL: GHANA MUSIC AWARDS: THE GOSPEL DOMINANCE SO FAR: Since the inception of Ghana Music Awards in 2000, there have been much complaints as to why Gospel artistes have not been able to win the ...

GHANA MUSIC AWARDS: THE GOSPEL DOMINANCE SO FAR

Since the inception of Ghana Music Awards in 2000, there have been much complaints as to why Gospel artistes have not been able to win the topmost awards, despite the good stuffs most of them had released and submitted for the awards. Just last Saturday, Gospel’s own Joe Mettle changed the face of the game when he won the artiste of the year award. This is a record as far as Ghana Gospel Music is concerned. This article seeks to identify some other records that have been chalked by some gospel artistes at the Ghana Music Awards so far and how gospel music has fared as far as Ghana Music Awards is concerned.
 

GMA 2001: In 2001, Cindy Thomson’s Cindy’s Messiah stood head to head with Daughters of Glorious Jesus’ ‘Nea Ye Hu’ and managed to sweep awards for the two gospel categories plus the Best Female Vocal Performance Award, at the second edition of the Awards. It was an achievement that gained Cindy much respect as far Gospel Music is concerned; and till date ‘Cindy’s Messiah’ and ‘Nea Ye Hu’ are two of the best Gospel albums ever to have been recorded by Ghanaian Artistes.

GMA 2003: In 2003, Esther Smith, then a debutant repeated Cindy Thompson’s feat by winning two out of the three gospel category awards, plus the Best Female Vocal Performance awards with her ‘Gye No Di’ album.

GMA 2004: In 2004, Daughters of Glorious Jesus made a strong comeback with their ‘Aseda’ album. The year 2003 had been a very competitive year for the gospel music industry in Ghana, seeing the debuts of Sandra Oduro with ‘Yesu Ayonkofa’, Ama Boahema with ‘Bue Kwan’, and Christiana Love with ‘Holy Ghost Int. Vol 1’. Daughters however proved their dominance on the gospel scene when even prior to the GMA, they won the Our Music (OM) Award for the year 2004. At the Ghana Music Awards 2004, the group swept five awards including the Overall Album of the Year, and Best Female Vocal Performance awards. It was the first time a gospel Artiste had picked up any of the three top awards. It was also the first and only time a Gospel artiste had won more than three awards at a GMA event. It is therefore not surprising that ‘Aseda’ by Daughters of Glorious Jesus is till date  one of the best –if not the best- gospel album by a local artiste.

GMA 2005: In 2005, Esther Smith made a comeback with ‘Nnipa’ album which won her another three awards, but this time exchanging the Best Female Vocal Performance award for the Album of the Year award. This makes her the first gospel artiste to have won awards with two consecutive albums at the Ghana Music Awards. It also makes her the gospel artiste with the highest number of GMA awards so far.

GMA 2008: The year 2008 saw many artistes boycotting the Ghana Music Awards due to distrust in the selection board. At the event, Ohemaa Mercy’s ‘Edin Jesus’ won her three awards including the Album of the Year, out of the eight nominations she garnered. Kwaw Kese however outshined her with five awards.

GMA 2008: Pastor Lenny Akpadie with his ‘Most High God’ swept the Gospel song of the Year, and Most Popular Song of the Year awards. It was the first and only time that a gospel artiste had picked up the Most Popular Song of the Year Award.

GMA 2009: Bernice Offei won two awards, namely Best Female Vocal Performance and Song Writer of the year. This was the first time a Gospel artiste had been recognized for his or her song writing prowess.

VGMA 2017: Joe Mettle made an outstanding record by picking up one of the three top awards, the Overall Artiste of the Year, which also happens to be the most coveted award for the event night. This was the first time a gospel artiste had picked up this award.

Summary of Records GMA Gospel

Daughters of Glorious Jesus are the Gospel artistes to have won the highest number awards on a GMA night, and also the first gospel Artistes to have won the Album of the Year award.

Esther Smith is the first gospel artiste to have won awards with two consecutive albums, and also the gospel artiste with the highest number of GMA awards.

Ohemaa Mercy is one of the only three gospel artistes to have won the Album of the Year award.

Pastor Lenny Akpadie is the first and only Gospel Artiste to have won the Most Popular Song of the Year Award

Bernice Offei is the first gospel artiste to have won the Song Writer of the Year award.

Joe Mettle is the first and by far the only gospel artiste to have won the Overall Artiste of the Year award.

VGMA 2017: THE OOHHS, THE AAHHS, AND A CASE OF HE WHO LAUGHS LAST…

Just last Saturday, April 8^th, the much awaited Vodafone Ghana Music Awards came off at the Dome of the Accra International Conference Centre. This marked the eighteenth (18) edition of the biggest music event in Ghana.
 

Prior to the event, there have been much misgivings and dissatisfaction with the nominations. The artiste who seemed to have enjoyed massive airplay during the year under review, Kofi Kinaata missed out on two of the most important categories of the year, the Most Popular Song, and Artiste of the Year. A new artiste, Medikal however seemed to attract the favour of the board in garnering a total of eight nominations in seven categories, including the Overall Artiste of the Year. On the gospel side, Diana Antwi Hamilton was nowhere to be found (probably because she made no submission). Nacee on the other hand garnered nine nominations for both gospel and secular works.

If nominations were anything to go by, then Nacee and Medikal were tipped to be the highest winners of the night; however, Charterhouse just seemed to enjoy surprising music fans and artistes.

At the end of it all, Kinaata went home content with three of the awards he was nominated for, which included the songwriter of the year award, and Nacee went home with one award. The surprises of the night were Medikal who went home with EMPTY HANDS, and Joe Mettle who swept three awards being the Gospel Artiste of the Year, Best Male Vocalist, and the much coveted Overall Artiste of the Year (the first time a gospel artiste had won the award). So you see, not every first laugh is a good laugh… Kudos to Kofi Kinaata and Joe Mettle… We look forward to more good stuffs from you.