Currently most entertainment presenters and writers have it in mind that Dancehall artiste Stonebwoy may stand the chance of winning this year's Vodafone Ghana Music Awards Artiste of The Year category.
On the other hand, high life artiste Bisa Kdei to me stands out to be the best artiste for 2016 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards due to his efforts under year review from 1st January ,2015 till now. The criteria for the ultimate award at the VGMA's artiste of the year states "Artist of the year is the topmost award at the Ghana music awards, given to the Artist(s) adjudged by the Academy board and the general public as having the highest audience appeal and popularity."
The artiste(s) must have released a hit single/album during the year under review.
Evaluating his achievements, the high life singer dominated the recent 2016 MOGO( Music Of Ghanaian Origin) Awards winning 5 covetous awards out of the 10 categories. These were the categories he championed; Mogo Best Song, Best Songwriter, Artiste Of The Year,Best Male Artiste and Best Collaboration.
His Breakthrough album unleashed in 2015 was sold out and had a lot of hit singles. Again he has been nominated for the 2016 KORA Awards for the Best Male Artiste ( West Africa) category not forgetting about all the much talked about shows he had headlined in 2015 till now.
On the other hand, non of the contenders in VGMA 2016 artiste of the year category has won an award or gained nominations this year aside the VGMA's with Sarkodie as an exception.
Kdei built a bigger and better fan base in 2015 and was warmly received and cheered on all the musical platforms he mounted.
His Mansa and Brother Brother hit singles have so far remained on the lips of both the young and old, as well as the most played songs in Ghana since 2015 competing with Shattawale's Kakai, Chop Kiss, Mahama Paper and Hol It. The only artiste who could have being his impediment is Shattawale with his four massive national hit songs; kakai, hol it, chop kiss, and mahama paper but has been debarred from the awards. The most amazing thing is that, the artistic highlife singer had a hand In the production of these hit songs depicting that his is a master of the "game".
With this criteria; Stonebwoy stand the chance of winning the Reggae/Dancehall artiste and song of the year among the 4 nominations.
The reigning artiste of the year is one way or the other doing the best he can to still remain on his peak .
After Stonebwoy winning the 2015 Artiste of the year, Reggae/Dancehall artiste of the year and Reggae /Dancehall song of the year,he proceeded internationally gaining nomination in the Black Entertainers Tv Awards for the international act-Africa category with artiste like: AKA, Yemi Alade,Sarkodie,Wizkid .
Stonebwoy was nominated in various local and international awards which he fortunately won and unfortunately lost some in 2015.
To be honest, all the awards and achievements the dancehall artiste made in 2015 was based on his assiduous efforts put in his career in 2014 which we all saw a massive reflect on him in 2015.
Although, he put in much exertion in 2015, frankly speaking, his efforts in 2014 outweighs what he did in 2015 to earn him the Artiste Of The Year award.
To my best of knowledge Bisa Kdei deserved nomination in seven categories which includes: High life song, High life artiste, album of the year, male vocal, most popular song, collaboration of the year and the artiste of the year.
Excluding artiste of the year, Bisa Kdei could stand the chance of winning at least four which is high life artiste of the year, high life song, album of the year and collaboration of the year.
Comparing the two leading artistes in the industry now, Bisa Kdei will surely come out as the top most artist of the year if the academy board will be fair. He actually has Ghana on his shoulders currently and it is evident as he has won 5 awards and gained an international nomination regardless of the VGMA's in 2016 at the expense of his contenders.
Compiled By Dan Lartey(Reporter, Flex Newspaper) & Jullie Jay-Kanz ( Blogger & Writer, hellogh.com, julliejay.com, dancehallcriticblog.
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Date | 7th April, 2016
By: Dan Lartey
