 It is almost becoming a reality that organizers of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, Charter House, enjoy the annual controversies that surround the event and therefore take deliberate steps to create controversy.
Another controversy that has hit the company is an ongoing debate about the exclusion of Gospel singer Nicholas Omane Acheampong of ‘Zaphanat Panea’ fame from the list of performers at the recently held Nominees Jam in Koforidua.
The exclusion of Omane Acheampong has raised questions on whether it was not a deliberate sabotage by Charter House considering the fact that he had recently taken the company to the cleaners and challenged their nomination criteria for the VGMAs.
Almost all the nominees from the various categories of this year’s VGMAs were invited to perform at the Nominee Jams but to the surprise of his fans who were present at the Koforidua Jackson’s Park, Nicholas Omane Acheampong was missing in action.
Gospel singer Nicholas Omane Acheampong of ‘Zaphanat Panea’ fame, it would be recalled, expressed his displeasure at the organizers of the Ghana Music Awards and challenged their criteria for compiling the nomination list for this year’s awards.
His song ‘Zaphanat Panea’ has become one of the most popular songs in Ghana and bagged five nominations for the Music Awards this year but the musician insists he does not qualify for one of the categories and should have also been nominated for three others.
“It has become clear that the organizers do not respect those of us who do gospel music. When did you ever hear of a gospel artiste winning the Artiste of the year? Does it mean those of us who sing gospel music do not have what it takes to win that category? Meanwhile, it is gospel music that is selling and we do more shows than the other genres yet they do not take us serious.
“I know I deserve nomination for Best Song Writer of the Year, Artiste of the Year and Album of the Year yet ‘Zaphanat Panea’ is missing in all these categories,” Nicholas Omane Acheampong told NEWS-ONE
But in explaining what went into the compilation of the Nominees jam performance list, George Quaye, a core member of the production team of this year’s VGMAs told a local radio station, “Well, myself together with the rest of the team sat down and decided which artistes were going to perform and which ones were going to be dropped.
It is not true that some of the artistes had to come to us with their managers or lobbyists to lobby before their names were put on the bill,” |
