Ignace must up his game for 4Syte TV Music Awards

The most talked-about issue at this year’s MTN 4Syte Music Video Awards has been the Lifetime Achievement Award presented to the founder of the Kristo Asafo Church and the Great KOSA network of companies, Apostle Dr. Kwadwo Safo Kantanka. That is, however, not my focus for now.

If there is a category that should be scrapped from the 4Syte TV Music Video Awards, then it is the Most Influential Artiste award. Why should there be an influential artiste at a music video awards? It simply doesn’t  make sense at all. 

The continued existence of this category means that the people who collate the videos before they are categorised do not know what they are doing. I say this with all respect because I personally know some committee members.

The awards are about music videos. So where does the influential artiste come in? Currently, there are no known category definitions for the awards but that specific category is definitely not necessary. 

The next category that must go, in my estimation, is the Most Popular Video award. Who determines which video is the most popular? I think that gradually, popularity of songs is having an adverse effect on music videos, which should not be the case at all. 

By far, the easiest way to find out how a particular video is doing on the internet is through YouTube. That music uploading platform offers the opportunity to anyone interested to know how many times the video had been viewed. So there is bound to be confusion when a video which has clocked less viewers wins the Most Popular Video ahead of a video with more viewers. 

I know the Most Popular Video doesn’t necessarily need to come with the best of  pictures, directing and the rest of other  ingredients that make a video great. 

As the name itself suggests, the video only has to be popular and by all indications, Shatta Wale’s Everybody Likes My Thing video did not deserve to win the Most Popular Video ahead of Sarkodie and Castro’s Adonai. People may hold different opinions but the facts online are there for all to see.

At the awards, rapper, Edem’s The One video featuring Sway and directed by Gyo Gyimah of Phamous Philms picked home three awards for Best Photography, Best Directed Video and Most Outstanding Video.

In terms of the number of awards won on the night, the Ewe rapper was the biggest winner on the night. Edem wasn’t present to pick his awards but speaking to Starr FM, he said the organisers should work hard to ensure that next year’s edition of the ceremony does not get entangled in needless controversy. 

Ignace Hego is the CEO of 4Syte TV.  Honestly, the problems of controversy and mistrust dogging the awards could be placed at his doorstep. Yes, Ignace is the source of the problems associated with the awards.

When 4Syte TV came on the scene, it got a certain amount of instant attention to the extent that, several other programmes started copying the way  4Syte did things. 

Aside showing exclusive music videos, it gave television viewers interesting entertainment news from all over the country. Suddenly, all event organisers wanted 4Syte TV to cover their events. 

It wasn’t long before  4Syte TV culminated into an awards show after the brand started to be likened to international channels like MTV Base, Channel O and  other major international entertainment channels.

So how can a CEO of an awards show be the problem with the awards? What I have seen, heard and witnessed confirms views held by many that the awards is a one man show. Unfortunately, Ignace appears to handle majority of the things associated with the awards, which is not good for a show of such magnitude. 

Coca Cola is one of the biggest brands in the world, yet they still advertise regularly. Other big brands do expensive commercials all the time, so one wonders why Ignace and his awards do not want to involve other media houses.  Is it because  they think after that after six years, they do not need help from anybody? 

When it comes to an awards show, division of labour is the way to go. There is definitely a good reason why Charterhouse, organisers of the Ghana Music Awards, have three separate committees: Planning Committee, the Academy and the Board.

What division of labour means is that, work is shared out to different people to achieve the same results. Perhaps, the phrase ‘division of labour’  has disappeared from Ignace’s dictionary or he may have mistakenly deleted it for sheer lack of trust in the people he is working with. 

I was taken aback to realise that, it was the CEO of the awards who had to distribute  tags to media personnel a few hours before the awards ceremony. One thing I know for sure is that the CEOs of Charterhouse, Starr FM, Roverman, Glitz Africa Fashion Week or Imajin Advertising  would not personally be in charge of press tags at any of their  events. 

If Ignace doesn’t want to learn from the CEOs referred to, then he can be sure of continued problems at his awards ceremonies. Well!

eanangfio@hotmail.com or tweet @anangfio