The 18th edition of the Ghana Music Awards comes off Saturday, April 8 at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC).
The event is arguably the biggest night on the Ghana music calendar as artistes are recognised for their work over the year under review.
This year, no matter who wins the ‘Artiste of the Year’ title, history will be made.
The ‘Artiste of the Year’ is the topmost award at the awards. It is given to the artiste(s) adjudged by the Academy, Board and the general public as having the highest audience appeal and popularity in a particular year.
To win the topmost award, an artiste must have released a hit single/album during the year under review.
This year, E. L, Sarkodie, Stonebwoy, Joe Mettle, MzVee, and Medikal come Saturday will be hoping to bag that ultimate award and the bragging rights that come with it.
Let’s start off with Sarkodie.
Born Michael Owusu Addo, Sarkodie has won the Artiste of the Year twice. He won the coveted award at the 2010 and 2012 editions.
Apart from Sarkodie, VIP is the only group to have also won the award twice – 2004 and 2011.
What this means is that a win for Sarkodie this year, will make him the first artiste to win the award thrice (three times). That will be history!
Let’s look at Stonebwoy.
Born Livingstone Etse Satekla, Stonebwoy won the award at the 2015 edition of the awards. He is a Reggae/Dancehall artiste.
Artistes from the genre who have won the award previously are Samini (2007) and Shatta Wale (2014). They have all won it once.
If Stonebwoy wins the award on Saturday, he will be the first Reggae/Dancehall artiste to win the award twice.
How about E.L?
E.L, known in real life as Elorm Adablah, won the award at last year’s edition. If he wins this year, he will become the first artiste to retain the award. That will be a historic feat for the tall lanky singer.
… and MzVee?
Well, since the inception of the Ghana Music Awards in the year 2000, no female artiste has won the Artiste of the Year award.
Afropop, dancehall and R&B artiste, Vera Hamenoo-Kpeda, better known by her stage name MzVee, will break that jinx should she win at this year’s edition of the awards.
In Joe Mettle’s case?
Joe Mettle will also make history if he wins on Saturday because he would have been the first gospel artiste to win the award. In spite of the huge popularity and patronage of gospel music in the country, no gospel musician, since the inception of the awards, has won the Artiste of the Year award.
And Medikal?
If Medikal, born Samuel Adu Frimpong, wins, he will be the first artiste to win the award after actively doing music for just a year. Unlike the past winners, who were known artistes before they won, Medikal’s active music history dates back to only 2016.
Industry players will tell you, Medikal did hit the music scene with a big bang!
The 23-year-old rapper is well known for songs like ‘Too Risky’ (2016), ‘Confirm’ (2016), ‘Bra Krom’ (2016), ‘Still Pampii’ (2017), and ‘Gimme Vibe’ (2017). He also has ‘The ‘Medikation mixtape, released in 2016, to his credit.
Watch one of Medikal’s first interviews with JoyNews’ Becky in February 2016.
The big question now is, who makes history at the 2017 edition of the awards?
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