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.
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