GhanaWeb feature by: Benjamin Sackey

The Telecel Ghana Music Awards, known as one of the country's most credible and prestigious music awards, is organized annually to recognize and award the best talents in the industry.

Since its inception, the award scheme has been largely dominated by men, with female artistes struggling to catch up with their celebrated male counterparts.

This feature by GhanaWeb analyzes the decline in female performance at the Ghana Music Awards, comparing the 2023 and 2024 editions.

In the 2023 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, gospel artiste Piesie Esther won two categories: Gospel Song of the Year and Best Gospel Artiste of the Year. Additionally, songstress Gyakie won the Record/audio Engineer of the Year, totalling three awards for females.

In stark contrast, despite numerous nominations for female artistes in the 2024 edition, no female artiste won any award in a category that included male and female competitors, unlike in previous years.

At the 2024 TGMA awards, Gyakie and Abiana received five nominations. Wendy Shay and Efya had three; Joyce Blessing, Adina and Diana Hamilton had two each.

Despite these nominations, it was disappointing that none of the songstresses clinched a single award, with males largely dominating.

This raises concerns about the efforts female artistes are making to compete with their male counterparts for awards in the country.

There are also questions about the composition of the Ghana Music Awards board, which is rumoured to be male-dominated, although there has been no official disclosure of the identities of the board members.

It is worth noting that the popular award scheme has three voting patterns: board, academy, and the public. While some of the categories are determined by the general public, others are decided through a combination of the board, academy, and public votes. Additionally, some of the categories that fall under Industry Awards are determined without public votes.

The late Dancehall artiste Priscilla Opoku Kwarteng, better known as Ebony Reigns, won the prestigious Artiste of the Year award in 2018. In 2021, gospel musician Diana Hamilton also received this award.

Despite these achievements, there appears to be a downturn in their performance in the music industry between the years 2023 and 2024 under review.

It remains to be seen how the female artistes will perform at the 2025 TGMA.

SB/BB