Editor's Lens: Grammy win or not, Ghanaian artistes deserve applause

The Grammys undoubtedly is the biggest music awards ceremony in the world, and it’s understandable that many artistes look forward to taking home one or more of that ‘golden gramophone’.

Just like other musicians around the world, Ghanaian artistes have equally nursed the ambition of winning a Grammy, and it appeared expectations were really high this year when Dancehall artistes, Stonebwoy and MOGmusic of the gospel fraternity, both announced they had submitted their albums ‘5th Dimension’ and ‘Koinonia Phase II’ respectively for consideration last month

However, all that hope sunk when they missed out on the nomination list released by the organisers last week. Perhaps, the feeling is similar to when Ghanaian Reggae artiste, Rocky Dawuni, failed to win his first Grammy last year after two failed attempts.

While these attempts by Ghanaian artistes to be recognised on the biggest music stage should be applauded, it has rather resulted in the efforts of these hardworking artistes to be belittled.

And once again, the unnecessary Ghana/Naija comparisons have started considering that a number of Nigerian artistes had Grammy nominations, and no one from Ghana made the list, watering down the efforts of Ghanaian artistes in the process.

Ghanaian musicians are significantly thriving on the international stage and their inability to earn a spot in the Grammy space should not be the sole indicator of their impact.

Names like Snoop Dogg, Bob Marley, Tupac are huge on the global music scene but they have no Grammy win to their list of achievements.

Graphic Showbiz believes, yes, it would have been great if our artistes were nominated and even went ahead to grab a Grammy award but this is not the time to apportion blame just because our artistes missed out on a Grammy nomination or win.

Ghanaian artistes are presently doing well, playing shows around the world, appealing to larger audiences outside Ghana and Africa.

Instead of criticising our artistes for Grammy misses, let's celebrate their achievements on the global stage and encourage them to even do better.

Of course, a Grammy win for them will be well celebrated but until then let us encourage them to keep up with their good works since their impact goes beyond winning awards.