Highlife legends roll back the years at MOGO

Act after act thrilled the visibly excited audience at the MOGO Awards held at the Accra International Conference Centre last Saturday.

Those awesome performances obviously made up for the show that started two and half hours behind time, making it worth every minute of the time spent there.

Pat Thomas set the ball rolling and got everyone singing along to his hit song Sika Ye Mogya and others from his repertoire. One can say he adequately warmed the stage for the other equally impressive acts that followed.

Before The Ramblers International took their turn, Nana Asaase did a poetry recital in rememberance of our musical heroes in the persons of Mac Tontoh, P.K.Yamoah, Dr Paa Bobo, Jerry Hanson and Terry Bonchaka. It was such an emotional moment that brought tears to the eyes of some members of the audience.

The Ramblers left no stone unturned as they performed one popular song after the other. They looked smart in their Western-style black suit over white shirts and the two lead singers exhibited some brilliant dance skills.

What can one expect when Paapa Yankson  comes on stage but a spectacular performance. Exactly what he did last Saturday at the MOGO Awards. Paulina Oduro was there to do the popular love song Tena Menkyen with him.

That was just the beginning for other songs to follow like Show Your Love, Okukuseku, Awo Twen and Adwoa Yankey. The audience were way beyond this world as they sang and danced along.

The story was not different as Nana Kwame Ampadu and his African Brothers International Band took their turn. They thrilled the audience with their story-telling prowess doing songs such as Getty, Agartha and Oman Boadwo.

Samuel Owusu, Adane Best were both impressive as they did their own thing with the Rap Dacta Okyeame Kwame bringing the curtains down on the show.

The night itself was for awards and rightly so, deserving artistes were rewarded. The Lifetime Achievement Awards went to four great legends in the persons of Paapa Yankson, Pat Thomas, A.B. Crentsil and Kofi Sammy.

MCs for the night were Citi FM’s Bernard Avle and Paulina Oduro with the former showing how good an MC he can be with his great sense of humour.

The MOGO Festival was sponsored by Agricultural Development Bank(ADB) and Alisa Hotels and powered by Citi FM.

Other Award winners were:

Best Choral Group – Harmonious Choir

Best Music Producer – George Forest

Best Band – King Shabo Band

Best Original Gospel Act – OJ

Best Vocalist – Efya

Best Song Writer – Daddy Lumba

Best Performer – Amakye Dede

MOGO Highlife Song – Adult Musik by Kwabena Kwabena

Artiste of the Year – Okyeame Kwame

See centre pages for pictures.