Piesie Esther, Black Sherif battle VGMA Artiste of the Year

Even though Stonebwoy, Camidoh and Sarkodie had come up as likely candidates for the topmost VGMA Artiste of the Year nominations, gospel singer Piesie Esther and Kwaku The Traveller hitmaker, Black Sherif have come up as favourites to be crowned.

And the grounds has been prepared for what seems like a tough battle in the few days ahead as the two were announced in the Artiste of the Year category.

This year’s Artiste of the Year has Black Sherif, Stonebwoy, Sarkodie, King Promise, Camidoh, KiDi, who is the reigning VGMA Artiste of the Year, Piesie Esther and Joe Mettle.

Even before Piesie Esther was nominated, some players in the gospel music industry including Kofi Donkor, manager cum husband of colleague Celestine Donkor had started making projections that the W’aye Me Yie artiste will win the topmost prize at this year’s awards ceremony.

But the happening will undoubtedly be an uphill task with the colossal exploits of Black Sherif making global hits in the year under review.

Earlier yesterday, Charterhouse unveiled the nominations list for this year's event with the exception of the “Big five” –Best New Artiste, Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Most Popular Song of the Year and Artiste of the Year- which was announced at the Grand Arena of Accra International Conference Centre (AICC) last night.

The Most Popular Song of the Year has Sugarcane (Camidoh),  Countryside (Sarkodie), Kweku The Traveller (Black Sherif), Friday Night (Lasmid), Downflat (Kelvyn Boy), Something (Gyakie), Survivor (Wendy Shay), Blessed (KiDi), Therapy  (Stonebwoy) and W’aye Me Yie (Piesie Esther).

Lasmid, Djay, Malcom Nuna, Jay Bahd, Ewurabena, DJ Azonto, Chief One are competing for the Best New Artiste.

Record of the Year has King Promise, Adomaa, Perez Musik, Stonebwoy, Sarkodie and Gyakie and nominees for Album of the Year are  Black Sherif (Villain I Never Was), Sarkodie (Jamz), Gyakie (My Diary), King Promise ( 5Star), Kwesi Arthur ( Son of Jacob) and Joe Mettle (The Kadosh).

Categories for this year’s VGMA24 include Artiste of the Year, Most Popular Song of the Year, Gospel Song of the Year, Gospel Artiste of the Year, Album of the Year, Afrobeats Song of the Year, Highlife Song of the Year, Hiplife Song of the Year, Rapper of the Year and Songwriter of the Year.

The 24th VGMAs will be held on Saturday, May 13 at the Grand Arena of the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC).