Ghana Music Awards Introduces Changes In Category Definitions

If there's any awards show in Ghana that truly gets everyone involved, its arguably the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards ( VGMAs).

It is the biggest honours in music in Ghana amd after every event, organizers consider comments from patrons, reviews from journalists, feedback from viewers who watched it on TV and criticisms from other stakeholders.

Organizers say this is done to ensure that the award scheme incorporates to a large extent all the concerns of industry players, the artistes and the fans. This is probably why the VGMA has remained the single most anticipated event of the GH entertainment calendar for the past sixteen years.

Based on the feedback and comments of the 15th edition, organizers have once again made a few changes to the 16th edition. This year two categories, the New Artiste of the Year and the Music Video of the Year have been redefined and a totally new category, the Reggae/Dancehall Artiste of the Year, introduced.

The New Artiste category has over the years generated a lot of talk and in an attempt to make things clearer; the category has now been re-defined to capture the true meaning of the word, new.

The new category definition reads, �The New Artiste of the Year is the Artiste(s) adjudged by the Academy, Board and the General Public as the most promising and talented emerging artiste (s). The award goes to a relatively new artiste(s) who released a SINGLE/ALBUM that FIRST shot the artiste (s) into the limelight in the year under review.

Then in response to usualcontroversy on whether the award for the Best video should go to the artiste or the director, organizers as usual paid attention to the feedback and the new category definition for the Best Video Year reads, �The Music Video of the year is adjudged by the AcademyandBoard as the most creative and entertaining music video produced within the calendar year. The song, for which the video has been produced, need not have been released in the year under review. The award goes to both Director and Artiste�.

Last year, there was a call by many to recognize the most hardworking dancehall artiste. The Reggae/Dancehall genre has grown from an emerging music genre to being an accepted music genre to recognize this fact and also heed to calls by many, organizers have created one more category for the Reggae/Dancehall genre. The definition of the category reads, �The Reggae/Dancehall 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 Reggae/Dancehall genre. The Artiste(s) must have released a hit single/album in the year under review�

This year, Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMAs) voters will get to make a decision on the Reggae/Dancehall Artiste of the year. Yes! A dancehall king or queen at last. After this there will be no argument on who deserves to call himself or herself dancehall king or queen, that title would now be settled once and for all at the Vofadone Ghana Music Awards (VGMAs) and the winner will be certified by 25 million fans as the undisputed dancehall champion for a whole year.