The 19th edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards was the best Charter House has organized since its inception in 2000 but it was marred with some controversies, chief amongst them being ‘The Most Popular Song of the Year’ category. To the surprise of many, the award was given to Fancy Gadam’s ‘Total Cheat’, a song he featured rap mogul Sarkodie. This left many patrons at the Accra International Conference Centre very perplexed as many thought Patapaa’s one corner was going to take that particular award. A song which went viral across the length and breadth of the country and even crossed the borders to neighboring countries like Nigeria and was even reported as breaking news on CNN.
But reacting to his tweet on twitter, former member of the Akyeame duo, Okyeame Kofi had serious concerns about the award scheme’s voting structure particularly the Most Popular Song category. He made these comments when he was interviewed by the host of Shaft FM’s Super Drive, Romeo Kofi Debrah.
“…Popular song is a popular song. You cannot use your voting system to change the fact that Patapaa’s song is more popular than that of Fancy Gadam”, he said.
He went on further to explain that it’s ok to involve the public but that should never change the facts because it would not be a true representation of the reality on the grounds.
“Yes lets involve the public but let’s also look at the system that we are using to select who is the best of the best because if we don’t then truly this system that charter house is running will never be a true reflection of what the industry is, so let’s look into it”.
“So let’s look at the scheme correctly because this system that they are running currently, is not churning out what is expected”, he concluded.
Okyeame Kofi’s tweet……
Any award scheme which depends highly on unrestricted public voting cannot truely reward excellence because it opens doors for money to choose the winner.#Vgmablues
— QuophiOkyeame (@Quophiokyeame) April 15, 2018
Adam Yusif