Vice President of the Musicians Union Ghana, MUSIGA, Reverend Dr. Thomas Yawson have rebutted some reports disseminated by a cross section of online portals, depicting that, Gospel musicians have been ignored from the centre of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, VGMA’s scheme as inaccurate, revealing that, Gospel music have not neglected in rewarding the talents of the artiste.
According to the one time comtemporary Gospel artiste, there are categories allocated to these ministers of God which they can compete for. He indicated that, categories such as Album of The Year, Artiste of The Year, Female Vocalist of The Year, Male Vocalist of The Year, Gospel and Song of The Year respectively, are porous and peregrinate, which is not limited to a particular genre of music.
Reverend Dr. Thomas Yawson revealed that, Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, VGMA’s scheme has generated, induced and provided a particular centre of attraction to the Gospel climate. Explaining that, the awards scheme has elevated the huge brand-positioning opportunities for Gospel artistes to display their contents to their targeted consumers.
According to the ‘Fa Wo Ho Bo Nyame’ hit maker, the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, VGMA’s have brought a healthy competition amongst the Gospel artistes and challenged them to produce quality products which has improved their dexterity in performing, as every Gospel artiste wants to catch the eye of the scheme.
Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, VGMA’s which has been in existence for 19 years, saw minister of the Gospel, Joseph Oscar Mettle, widely known as Joe Mettle emerging as the 2017 winner of the uppermost category, precisely the Artiste of the Year. This has generated a widespread of general perception from the Gospel music lovers and fanatics in Ghana, stating that, Gospel music have deliberately been ignored in terms of acknowledging the toils and talents of the performers.
However, Vice president of the Musicians Union OF Ghana, MUSIGA, Dr. Thomas Yawson, believes that, the blackball Vodafone Ghana Music Awards does is, the Gospel performing arts and the categories they receive are not encouraging, explaining that, Gospel musicians have not been given the maximum number of slots to display their artistic prowess to their audience.
According to him, if Gospel artiste emerge as the winner of the Artiste of the Year category, they are deprived of the much needed support, like they do with the secular artistes, urging Ghanaians to accept the fact that Gospel genre of music has come to stay and needs the necessary attention to elevate it performers.
By: Gerrard-Israel
