The 2018 edition of the VGMA was particularly blatant soul-sucking and manipulative event. The 19-year-old music awards could have been a step forward for Charter House (organizers of the awards show). Instead, it turned out to be the most disappointing awards show in recent history. I was really shocked last Saturday night (14th April 2018) with some of the results I heard especially the “most popular song of the year” (now song of the year) going for Fancy Gadam’s “Total cheat” song. A category which had Patapaa’s One corner song, Bronya by Wutah, Taking over by Shatta Wale, Angela by Kwame Eugene, Poison by Ebony, Odo by Kidi and Bo noo ni by Joe Mettle. Indeed there was TOTAL CHEAT that night.
I decided to enquire from other sources how come Fancy Gadam ‘s Total cheat song which was unknown to majority of Ghana could sweep that award from artistes who really deserved it. I was told the same old story, the general public voted massively for Fancy Gadam because he represented the entire northern part of Ghana. Again I decided to learn more about the voting scheme for the most popular song category and I realized it was no longer decided by 100% public votes. In the past years, the power to choose the most popular song of the year was the preserve of the general public. As a corrective measure, the voting scheme was revised in February, 2018 and so the Academy now has 30% votes, 30% also for the board and the 40% votes reserved for the general public. So it’s never true that the most popular song was still decided by 100% public votes. Per Charter House definition of most popular song, the song must have enjoyed a lot of patronage and generated the most excitement during the year.
Fancy Gadem’s song isn’t bad and neither is he artistically and in terms of popularity; however his Total cheat song does not come near to that of his competitors in the category. Take PatapaA’s one corner, Watah’s Bronya and Shatta Wale’s taking over, which other songs was bigger and popular than theirs. One corner song has been everywhere, across Africa, playing in cities and suburbs, house parties, at wedding ceremonies, festivals, in people’s headphones and so on. One corner song was inescapable and inevitable that even Parliamentarians couldn’t avoid it. The song was more than the results of what happens when human voice is stretched on top of music, and more than a beat that sits at your lips. To have a whole country including parliamentarians singing along was a feat. Music lovers in Ghana have always craved for something different from what they’ve been listening, and one corner song was able to offer that.
Unfortunately, this song was not even immune to the myopic watch of the board and the Academy. Surprisingly, the board and the Academy which had 60% votes were not even unanimous and miss the boat to the extent that they failed to honour a piece of work that’s truly transcendental and widely popular. How can you award a song that is only known in Accra and some parts of northern Ghana over a song that was all over Africa. I am not really concerned about the public votes, because votes can be bought. Anybody can buy loads of credits and get people to vote massively for him/her even if that person does not deserve the award. That’s why the VGMA gets it wrong all the time. The change in voting pattern this year, I believe should have been the rescuer but that wasn’t the case at all.
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