Why Shatta Wale may not be nominated for VGMA 2016
On the first day of January 2016, Charterhouse, the organisers of the prestigious and the biggest event on the Ghanaian entertainment calendar, the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, announced that they had opened nominations for this year’s event.
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The annual Vodafone Ghana Music Awards aims at, among other things, recognise and celebrate the hard work and dedication of the various players in Ghana’s music industry.
The scheme brings out exciting experiences among musicians and their fans.
It reminds everyone that, after all the hard work undertaken in the previous year, it is time to be acknowledged and honoured.
The release put out read, “Charterhouse Productions Limited, organisers of the annual Vodafone Ghana Music Awards Festival is elated to announce to musicians, music industry practitioners and members of the general public that nominations are open for awards considerations in the upcoming edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards festival slated for May 2016.
It continued, “All interested stakeholders are by this release encouraged to pick nomination forms from the offices of Charterhouse Productions Limited, selected radio and TV stations or download from www.ghanamusicawards.com. Forms can also be filled online and mailed to entry@ghanamusicawards.com.
The release further stated that, “completed hand filled forms and copies of CDs, videos and promotional pictures should all be submitted to the offices of Charterhouse Productions Limited located at B824/10 Feo Eyeo Street, Industrial Area Accra, near TV Africa, not later than 31st January, 2016 when all nominations close.”
Materials eligible to be submitted for consideration into this year’s scheme are works released between January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015.
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With the information on how one can submit their works being spelt out in the public domain, the official Facebook page of the awards has a post asking fans to be interactive and tag their favourite musicians and managers to remind them of the impending exercise.
A careful scrutiny of the comments indicated that, Shatta Wale is by far the artiste many people want to see win the most honours at the awards, including the coveted award for Artiste of the Year for the second time.
This is not to say that, no other artistes were mentioned. However, what I’m saying is that, virtually all the comments were in favour of the self-acclaimed Dancehall King.
The year gone by was an exciting year for Shatta Wale without a doubt. He had an amazing year with many releases and with multiple hits which have become anthems in the system.
However, Shatta Wale has a negative and bad history with the organisers of the awards and the awards itself. He won it deservedly in 2014.
2013 – The Insults Year
After being underground for many years, Shatta Wale, rebranded from Bandana, was nominated in the Reggae/Dancehall Song of the Year category with his Shatta City song. He lost to a new entrant Kaakie’s Toffee Pon Tongue.
Not happy about his lose, Shatta Wale took to social media to post all sorts of negative and unprintable remarks about Kaakie. He also accused Charterhouse of robbery. Though he subsequently apologised, the apology was described as a joke.
2014 – The Hardworking Year
With banging hits and his Dancehall King song leading the way, he should have been adjudged Artiste of the Year in 2014. Because the organisers were not able to meet the ridiculous fee he demanded to perform, he decided not to attend the awards.
He was however seen at the venue with his fans jubilating. The fact that he ignored the awards did not take anything away from the awards in terms of content. He coming to the venue to party showed a man who is indecisive.
2015 – The Confusing Year
With many hits such as “Wine Yuh Waist featuring Davido, Party All Night featuring Jah Vinci, You Can't Touch Mi, We Spoil Der, Dancehall Commando featuring Sarkodie, My Homeland (Korle Gonno), Wa Shatta Mi featuring Pope Skinny, Megye Wo Girl featuring Sarkodie, Shatta Wale warned Charterhouse to take him out of the 2015 awards.
He threatened to sue them should they go ahead to nominate any of his creative works. He was ignored.
2016 – The Deciding Year
In 2015, Shatta Wale released a staggering 90 songs with about five hits on the radio. Now that puts him in a comfortable position in the upcoming music awards. But will he be nominated after his previous behaviour and threat to sue the organisers and the scheme last year?
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Will he or any of his team members submit his songs to the awards? If so, on what basis would they be submitting? Should he decide when he wants to be part of the scheme based on what he feels and because he stands a better position to win?
Will he apologise just because he wants to be considered for the awards? Should he be forgiven if he does that?
I think he can be forgiven if he apologises again but I don’t think that should earn him an automatic slot in the awards, unless we want to encourage such unruly behaviour.
Even if he submits his works for consideration, the decision on whether to nominate him or not rests with the Board and it will be interesting to know what their explanation would be should they decide to ignore or nominate him.
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Speaking with the spokesperson for Charterhouse and the awards, George Quaye, he said even though he feels it is only the Board that has right to the nominations of Shatta Wale, it is very important that he is allowed to dance to the music he started.
“It’s not fair that based on what an artist feels, he or she decides to boycott the awards and later wants to come in. Though there are lapses in every award organised, it’s only with time that they get better, so be careful what you say because you cannot take it back,” he told Pluzz FM.
Apology or not apology, will or should Shatta Wale be nominated in the upcoming Vodafone Ghana Music Awards? I don’t know but I feel, people should be bold enough to face the consequences of their own actions.
Shatta Wale may be the people’s favourite but that shouldn’t be enough reason for him to vomit and return to lap up the puke’. Now over to you VGMA Board in Joe Lartey’s voice.
anangfio@gmail.com or tweet @anangfio
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