Gospel Music 'Drought' Hit Ghana Music Awards

In the history of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, there come some years when a drought hits some categories and organisers are hard put finding enough deserving song nominations. It has happened in the highlife category before as it has in the reggae category. But never has the drought hit the gospel music category until now. Reliable information reaching Showbiz ,ahead of the grand launch of the biggest event on Ghana�s entertainment calendar, suggest that unlike previous years when the Nominations Board was spoilt for choice when it came to gospel music, this year, the Board is struggling to fill the gospel categories. The VGMA Board is made up of music industry personalities representing the various sectors of the industry. The Board is responsible for categorising and collating the entries submitted as well as shortlisting the final list of nominees per category.They contribute 50% of the votes scoring for the industry awards categories and 30% for the public awards categories. Insiders tell Showbiz that, the situation of the scarcity of deserving gospel nominations was observed at the categorisation stages of of VGMA but it was hoped that as the days went by, more nominations would come in. Problems of quality in terms of production, lyrical content and originality, Showbiz learnt, were some of the problems that were encountered. This year�s nominees, organisers say, will be revealed at the Grand Nominees Party on Saturday March 1st at the Golden Tulip Hotel. It follows weeks of researching, short listing, categorising, verifying and confirming the various entries submitted for nomination. In previous years, the VGMA Board, citing issues of sexually explicit and somewhat violent lyrics have disqualified among others, songs like Linda by Samini, and Agyei by R2Bees.