Vodafone Ghana Music Awards 2015; Ten Things To Look Out For

The Vodafone Ghana Music Awards is here with us again. The music festival which rewards artistes and celebrates Ghanaian music is happening on Saturday 11^th April, 2015. The theme for this year’s awards is ‘Ignited by Passion, Powered by 25million Fans’.

Here are 10 things to look out for;

1. This is the sixteenth year of the awards and no female artiste has ever won the overall Best Artiste of the year award. The last time a female artiste was nominated in the ultimate category was in 2012, when Efya and Becca lost out to Sarkodie.  

2.  Naturalgirl MzVee has been nominated in the Artiste of the year category. The simple probability that a female will win Artiste of The Year is 14.3 percent (one out of seven). If MzVee wins, she will become the first female artiste, the first female dancehall artiste, the first unsung performer to win it the next year, and probably the youngest winner ever!

3.  This year’s edition sees a new category- Reggae/Dancehall Artiste of the Year. The total number of categories has now increased to twenty five. In line with this year’s theme, Headline sponsors-Vodafone Ghana unveiled a fan park on the Osu Oxford Street for more fans to experience the festival.

4.  No Gospel artiste was nominated in the Artiste of the year category. UK based gospel singer, Sonnie Badu was a strong contender last year, but he lost out to dancehall king, Shatta Wale. The simple probability that a gospel singer will win the ultimate award is zero.

5. Sarkodie makes another first!  With 11 nominations, Obidi has just set the record for the highest number of nominations ever! Before this record, the highest number of nominations was nine. Volta Regime Music Group rapper, Edem follows closely with 10 nominations. Both Edem and Sarkodie will be competing in 6 categories - Artiste of the year, Hip life/Hip-hop Artiste of the year, Vodafone Song of the year, Best Rapper of the Year, Best Collaboration of the year, Hip Hop Song of the year, Best Rapper of the Year.

6.  In his very first attempt, Realer No hit maker, Pappy Kojo, is challenging for the HipLife/Hiphop Artiste of the Year, Hiphop Song of The Year, and Best New Artiste of The Year awards. That is a good feat for the new star.

7.  With over twenty albums to his name, Daddy Lumba of Yen Tie Obiaa fame is challenging for five awards including Artiste of theYear. Fans say like fine wine, he gets better with age and his music appeals to both the young and old.

8.  Some heavyweights from previous years who are nowhere to be found this time are Kwabena Kwabena, Sonnie Badu, Eazzy and Shatta Wale. In contrast, artistes like VVIP (formerly VIP), Samini, Edem, Castro, Guru, Sarkodie, EL, R2BEES, No Tribe and 4X4 have been highly consistent on the basis of nominations only.

9.  Sarkodie is the only artiste who appears three times in one category - Best collaboration of the year. Two of the songs are his and he was featured in the third.

10.  Last year’s champion, Shatta Wale is the first ever winner to be sued by the organizers and disqualified from the competition the next year. Reggae singer-poet, Blakk Rasta has also been disqualified before, but the Dancehall king is the first ever winner to be taken to court and disqualified by the organizers.

May deserving artistes win.

Author
Fatima Ibrahim has been a keen follower and analyst of contemporary African music and movies for years. When she is not checking out the latest in entertainment and current affairs, she spends her time working on a career as a professional telecoms engineer. Follow on twitter @fatizahrahim

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