Gospel singer, Celestine Donkor, says she is disappointed with the decision of the members of the board of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) to exclude her ‘Only You’ song from the list of nominees in the Songwriter of the Year category.
According to her, the only reason she can make up in the face of this snub is that the Board did not “listen” to her song properly. To her, some of the songs which were nominated for the category do not make the cut if they are compared to her song.
It’s quite surprising to me for a song like ‘Only You’ not to have been nominated in that category. And I feel like there was no proper listening of new songs like ‘Only You’ that should have made it to that category. Because I look at some songs that were nominated to that category and, I mean, if your ears on the ground and you really listen to the songs based on lyrical content, it’s quite surprising to me. Not to undermine the judgement of the Board but, I strongly feel that some songs were not giving proper listening.”
However, responding to the Celestine’s claims, the PRO of VGMA, Robert Klah, said that they have people who listen to and “follow” the songs thoroughly.
He indicated that song writing transcends lyrics but includes “melody” and other “technical” elements. As a result of that, even though ‘Only You’ is one of his personal favorites it was selected because there other “good” songs.
Regardless of this, the songwriter pointed out that, it seems the organizers of the award scheme are more focused on some artistes who are already known to be good song writers instead of throwing a wide net to get upcoming songwriters who might even be better than the established ones.
“It’s like some artistes have had the record of winning that award and so they are easily accepted to fit in those categories. I feel the Board is not really giving a chance to new songwriters who are coming-up, probably, more-stronger than even those who have these track record.
“There are people like Kinaata and Akwaboah, the category is fixated on them. And it’s not giving a chance for people who are coming up, really stronger, probably even stronger than those names to be given a hearing. I am 100% sure, that for this year’s Song Writer category, some songs were not giving a proper listening. If they will be truthful, they will confess that, they didn’t give songs proper listening. That just my opinion.”
Celestine, who was named among the top 30 Most Influential Women in Music by the 3Music in 2021, said she has observed this trend in previous years in other categories.
“It’s just a concern because I think that was the case for the Female Vocalist award at a point. It was just centered on about three artistes. So aside, may be Efya and Becca who constantly won it like 5 times in a row, there was a concern {that} are there no other female vocalists in Ghana. Until they started listening to the new ones it was like that.”
