Ghanaian event organizers need an A-List!

In most developed countries and even in Nigeria I am told they have a list of key industry players that are invited to various major events that go on all year round. Do we have something similar in Ghana? Do we even need one? And who gets on the A-list anyway?

Not too long ago, I was quoted somewhere as venting my spleen on Charter House because I wasn’t invited to cover some of their events during the festive season. While I feel that I had a case, technically I may not; after all Ghana hasn’t gotten to the level where people can respect objectivity and build on constructive criticism. However no amount of technicality can support what was reported to have happen at the ‘Ghana Rocks’ concert when Paedae of R2bees fame was denied entry into the venue by Charter House officials. I don’t have the full context of what happened but that doesn’t prevent me from hazarding a guess, although I shouldn’t technically. Yea right!! Well, the group has openingly disagreed with Charter House on many levels and perhaps this recent action was just to prove that the powers that disqualified Blakk Rasta from winning his much-deserved Ghana Music Award for reggae song of 2008 won’t take any nonsense from anyone.

Anyway back to the main subject of this piece. I think a lot of these issues could be solved when event organizers, party promoters etc have a reliable list of ‘celebrities’ that they would invite every now and then to their events. This has been happening over the year but I think a lot more could be done. The Ghana Music Awards is one main event that uses the A-list quite effectively; apart from having some stars hand out awards, nominees, performers and others get the A-list treatment to a large extent.

However, some of them often use their star power to get in to these hotspots, and that’s a good thing. But it’s no fun when they get in and have nowhere to sit. I think event organizers should rely on an A-list for their events; and rotating the invited A-listers over a period would be nice. This would ensure that no one is repeatedly ignored.

I understand that in a country where it’s difficult to get funding for events, when a company like MTN sponsors your program, there is the need to allocate some seats o them and their family members and occasionally even call them to give long boring speeches. But it’s very important to invite the people who make the industry tick as well.

Back to the R2bees thing, how can you invite Michele Williams to Grammys without inviting Beyonce? I better be on somebody’s A-list. LOL!