Vodafone Ghana Music Awards 2012 launched

The prestigious annual musical fiesta to acknowledge the contributions and achievements of Ghanaian musicians, the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards 2012, was launched in Accra on Saturday night with live musical performances at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Accra.

The event attracted the nation’s top musicians, ministers of state, diplomats, journalists and a cross section of music lovers and the general public.

This year’s Ghana Music Awards (GMA) ceremony, slated for April 14 at the Accra International Conference Centre, will reward deserving artistes for their hard work, dedication and contribution to the music industry.

This event is expected to attract Ghana’s top musicians, stakeholders in the music and copyright sectors, a cross-section of music lovers and the general public.

The much-anticipated release of nominations for the 2012 Ghana Music Awards will be announced on February 28 at a short ceremony which would be shown live on GH One Entertainment Television.  Public voting on all platforms, including SMS text and internet voting, will begin from March 1.

The package for this year’s awards includes GH¢ 2,000 for each winner, and GH¢ 10,000 for the Artiste of the Year. The winner of the World Bank sponsored Music for Development category will also take home a cash prize of GH¢ 5,000.

This year’s music awards festival kicks off with series of activities which include a nominees’ party in Takoradi on March 10 and Kumasi on March 24, as well as club parties in some selected regions. It would be climaxed with the final nominees’ party in Accra on March 31.

The 2012 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards was officially launched by the Deputy Minister of Tourism, James Agyenim Boateng.

In a speech, James Agyenim Boateng noted that the music industry in Ghana was a multi-million dollar worldwide business as well as a tool for immense magnetic tourism attraction.

He reiterated government’s commitment to promote the creative industry as a whole for economic development, adding that government would ensure that the industry got the necessary attention it deserved.

The launch also witnessed historic performances from Efya, Guru, Gifty Osei among others.

Vodafone, the new title sponsors of the Ghana Music Awards, also gave details of the Vodaone Ghana Music Awards Foundation, a new addition that the telecommunications giant brought on board with the aim of boosting the industry by giving local artistes the support needed to build their career and profiles both locally and internationally. The VGMA Foundation will be launched after the main awards night of the festival.

The Chief Marketing Officer of Vodafone Ghana, Uche Ofodile, in a statement noted that the idea of the foundation was to give them the opportunity to build on their success at the awards by giving them knowledge and business acumen to deliver more ambitious productions and build larger audiences. By associating the Foundation with a prestigious award festival such as the VGMAs, ‘we hope to give Ghanaian music and entertainment industry a boost in Africa and the rest of the world.’

By George Clifford Owusu