The 2017 edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards will go down in history as the most eventful one yet. From technical hitches to major surprises and record setting, it was a night like the pundits never expected!

The event went off to a shaky start when a there was a system overload in the power supply to the Accra International Conference Centre, causing a delay in the start of the show which was scheduled for live coverage across Africa via DStv. After almost an hour of delay, the show started and just when we thought things were going to finally kick off, the power went off again in the middle of the opening act by the Accra Symphony Orchestra.  After a few more attempts, the show finally kicked off 2 hours behind schedule

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And then came the surprises..Medikal, the hugely tipped New Artist of the Year, who came to the ceremony with 7 nominations including Artist of The Year didn’t win a single award. He lost the New Artist gong to Fancy Gadam. Dobble’s ‘Christy’ won Most Popular Song which came as a surprise to some, just as Flowking Stone’s  ‘Go Low’ winning Hiplife Song of the Year.

2017 also saw big breakthroughs for artists who won their first Ghana Music Awards after many years of being in the system. This included Adina Ntembi who won 2 nods for Record of The Year and Best Female Vocalist for her song ‘Too Late’.

The ultimate breakthrough was for Joe Mettle, who set a record by becoming the first gospel artist to win Artist of the Year in Ghana. In total he won 3 awards including Best Gospel Artist and Best Male Vocalist.  Also winning 3 awards on the night was Kofi Kinaata with Highlife Song of The year, Highlife Artist of the Year and Songwriter of The Year.

When @joemettle won #vgma2017 artist of the year. The first gospel artist to ever win #vgma2017ameyaw

A post shared by Ameyaw Debrah (@ameyaw112) on Apr 9, 2017 at 4:07am PDT

Nacee won 2 nods, Gospel Song of The Year and Album of The Year, while M.anifest also won two gongs – Rapper of the Year and Hiphop Song of The Year. Stonebwoy also cleared the Reggae/Dancehall category by winning best song and artist.

See complete  list of winners is below:

Artiste of the Year

Joe Mettle

Vodafone Most Popular Song of the Year

Dobble – Christy

Reggae/Dancehall Artiste of the Year

Stonebwoy

Highlife Artiste of the Year

Kofi Kinaata

Gospel Artiste of the Year

Joe Mettle

Hiplife Song of the Year

Flowking Stone – Go Low

Afro-pop Song of the Year

E.L – Kaabu Ame

Hip-hop Song of the Year

M.anifest – god MC

Best New Act

Fancy Gadam

Record of the year

Adina – Too Late

Best Female Vocalist

Adina

Best Male Vocalist

Joe Mettle

Best Group of the Year

VVIP

Best Music Video of the Year

Okyeame Kwame – Small Small feat. MzVee

Songwriter of the Year

Kofi Kinaata – Confession

Hiplife/Hip pop Artiste of the year

Sarkodie

Best Rapper of the Year

M.anifest

Album of the Year

The Counsellor by Nacee

Unsung Artiste

Kuami Eugene

Highlife Song of the Year

Kofi Kinaata – Confession

Gospel Song of the Year

Nacee – Yewo Nyame A Yewo Adze

Reggae/Dancehall Song of the Year

Stonebwoy – People Dey

Lifetime Achievement Awards

Paapa Yankson

Best Collaboration of the Year

“Alhaji” by VVIP feat. Patoranking

African Artist of the year

Run Town