Gospel Music Beef: Nicholas Omane punches Cwasi Oteng over Ghana Music Awards nominations

Gospel singer Nicholas Omane Acheampong of ‘Zaphanat Panea’ fame has expressed his displeasure with the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards and challenged the criteria with which they compiled the nomination list for this year’s awards. His hugely popular song bagged five nominations for the VGMAs this year but the musician insists he does not qualify for one of the categories and should have also been nominated for three others. In an interview with NewOne, he contended: “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 play 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.” He also passed some rather interesting comments on his colleague gospel singer Cwesi Oteng in relation to the music awards. He commented: “I expected to be nominated for the Best Song Writer of the Year, Artiste of the Year and Album of the Year. ‘Zaphanat Panea’ album is the most sold album of the year under review and I am talking about 2012. As I speak, we have sold over 70,000 copies and the impact is so huge. Go to the market and ask for Cwesi Oteng’s album. You would either not get it, or find it in very few stores, yet he was nominated for Artiste of the Year and Album of the Year. If both Cwesi Oteng and ‘Zaphanat Panea’ are competing for Gospel Album of the Year but Cwesi Oteng is also competing for overall Album of the Year, what do you expect to happen? Meanwhile, ‘Zaphanat Panea’ is the most patronized album ever. I am the Executive Producer of the song and I know what I am talking about. You can go out there and compare ‘Zaphanat Panea’ to ‘Mercy Project’ and tell me which is selling.” He further added: “You know this yourself. Because of the grace of God on my song, we now have ‘Zaphanat Panea’ cloths, ‘Zaphanat Panea’ haircuts, ‘Zaphanat Panea’ bags and ‘Zaphanat Panea’ movies. Yes, some people are using the name of my song to do movies. I had to call a movie producer from Kumasi, his name is ODK and I asked him why he is using intellectual property without my consent. He came to salute and offer something. Even the President of Ghana says he is called ‘Zaphanat Panea’.Yes the president has taken my song as his nickname so what else do they want before they know ‘Zaphanat Panea’ is very popular?”  ]]>