It is trite knowledge that no award scheme across the globe is devoid of criticisms. Even the globally known award schemes with several decades of existence such as the Grammys, Oscars, FIFA Ballon D’or, amongst others receive their share of criticisms. The VGMAs as an award scheme is no exception and therefore bears no immunity to these criticisms. Criticisms leveled against award schemes usually emerge during two periods.
These two periods are firstly, the period following the release of the list of nominees for the various categories of the scheme and secondly the period following the announcement of the award winners at the main event.
It has been a little over a month since the list of nominees for the upcoming 18th edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards was released.
As usual, the nominee list has generated a host of controversies which have been rife since the list was announced. One of the sources of the controversies is the nomination of talented artiste, Kofi Kinaata for the Highlife Artiste of the Year category.
Before I proceed to express my opinion on this issue, I find it appropriate to address two preliminary issues. They include providing a definition of who a Highlife Artiste is and also, stating the category definition for the category under scrutiny for the purpose of guiding my opinion. My basic understanding of a Highlife Artiste is an artiste who releases Highlife projects on the regular and is therefore recognized widely as belonging to the Highlife genre. The VGMA category definition for the Highlife Artiste(s) of the Year category also reads;
“The Highlife Artiste(s) of the Year is the Artiste(s) adjudged by the Academy, Board and the General Public as the Artiste(s) with the highest audience appeal and popularity in the Highlife genre. The Artiste(s) must have released a hit single/album during the year under review.”
Per the criteria definition stated above, it is apparent that the criteria definition lends a justification to the VGMA board for nominating Kofi Kinaata for the Highlife Artiste of the Year category.
This is because, an ordinary interpretation of the criteria definition reveals that the release of a just a hit Highlife single or a Highlife album by an artiste, irrespective of the genre the artiste is regularly known for doing is sufficient to merit a nomination for the Highlife Artiste of the Year category.
The criteria definition renders the genre background of the artiste moot because the expression used in the definition is ‘The Artiste(s) must have…..’ not ‘The Highlife Artiste(s) must have…..’
It can be deduced from this expression used in the criteria definition that, you don’t need to be a Highlife artiste, which per my definition means that you don’t need to be an artiste who releases highlife projects on the regular to merit a nomination for the Highlife Artiste(s) of the Year category.
So far as you released a hit highlife song, despite the fact that you are not known to be a Highlife artiste, then it is sufficient to earn a nomination for the said category.
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