An Open letter to the Ghana Music Awards – Part 1

Dear Ghana Music Awards
Cc: Charter House, MUSIGA
I must say I was saddened when I read an article about how Charter House might have gifted highlife singer, Kwaisey Pee with the Ghana Music Award for Best Male Vocalist in 2008 as his reward for writing a song for Irene and Jane, products from the maiden season of Stars of the Future. If in fact his claims are true then it is most unfortunate and those involved must bow their heads in shame. This leads me right into the reason why I have been meaning to write this piece ever since I was asked for my opinion about the 30% public votes in the selection of winners for the GMAs, on the Fiesta TV’s ‘Buzz’.

My answer on the TV show was no because I still insist that since the GMA is based on popularity the right people to decide what is popular, is the public. And now that we are hearing that some awards may be handed out as charity and payback, my answer is definitely hell no!!!! I wish we could have an academy that would do all the necessary industry checks and balances to come up with a nominations list for the public to vote. If anyone is interested in how this academy would be composed and how it would function, he/she/they should contact me with consultancy fee in hand. LOL

Once the nominations are out, then the public has 100% of the decision making process. Wouldn’t it be even better for MTN, the title sponsor if the selection of winners were made solely via SMS at premium rate? More money na hand! But hold not, there would a system to check that winners are not selected on the basis of who has the most money to vote. Through appropriate and existing technology, the voting system could be done in such a way that each SIM/phone number would have only one unique chance to vote in each of the categories. So in a way it’s a democratic selection and a fair representation of what is popular, no plutocracy. So if you are rich and want to vote more than once, you would have to buy new SIM cards and that would surely increase MTN’s subscription base and they can continue to be the biggest telecommunications network in Ghana. Hurray!!!!

Of course this system cannot be used in the selection of the so-called industry awards – the award Kwaisey Pee won falls in this category. But if we have the kind of academy that I have in mind in place, members would vote for each category in the industry awards and the nominees with the highest votes would win. So whether or not Charter House owes some artist some money, the GMA trophies would not be used as payback. By the way, why does Kwaisey Pee feel that he had a better album than Ayibge Edem?

I don’t even know how to end but one thing is for sure. You will hear from again before the awards ceremony on April 10.

Yours truly,
The Jaded Renegade