The Selection Committee voting for the upcoming Ghana Music Awards has taken place in Accra ahead of the Planning Committee voting and the Public voting, the two other major voting categories that determine the winners.

The two-day exercise brought together musicians, programmes directors of radio stations, radio presenters, arts writers and music industry experts.

Members voted after listening to all the songs in the various categories.

The votes of the selection committee form 35 percent of the overall votes. The rest of the votes is shared between the Planning Committee and the general public with 35 percent going to the former and 30 percent allotted to the latter.

It was no easy task since most of the categories were very competitive with all contenders being strong and potential award winners.

David Dontoh, chairman of the Planning Committee who chaired the Selection Committee meeting told Showbiz that it was highly successful exercise. "Attendance was impressive and I believe that members have voted wisely".

He said the Selection Committee members are considered as stakeholders in the industry being people who have in-depth knowledge of what goes in the industry.

"We ensured that members represent a cross-section of industry experts for which reason we invited people from other regions to give a fair representation", he said.

Showbiz learnt that voting by the Planning Committee was scheduled for yesterday and that of the general public would close on Saturday. All the votes will go directly to the event statiscians, KPMG, who will collate the votes and come up with the winners list.

Among the events that have been lined-up to celebrate this year's event which has been upgraded to a four-day festival. Mr. Dontoh said he was enthused about the one-day seminar that was originally scheduled for March 3.

He believed that a lot will be learnt on that day and he was particularly looking forward to seeing our artistes learn a lot about stage presence, an area he thinks a lot of them lack.

"They will be groomed on every aspect from the way they appear, dress, talk and how to generally have audience appeal", he said.

Unfortunately, Showbiz learnt later, the seminar had been cancelled owing to poor participation. Event Director of Charter House, the organizers, Theresa Ayoade told Showbiz that from past experience, musicians for whom the seminar was organised failed to patronize it.

Events for the festival which runs from March 2 to March 6 are the Highlife Night scheduled for March 2 at the Golden Tulip Hotel where the industry Awards will be given out and the main Ghana Music Awards Night will come off at the Accra International Conference Center on March 4.

On this day, a red-carpet treatment awaits patrons who are expected to be treated to spectacular performances by local and international artistes of high repute.

Among these are Rebecca Malope from South Africa, Sammy Opkoso from Nigeria, Awilo from DR Congo and Blu 3 from Uganda. On the local front will be Amandzeba, Praye, VIP featuring 2 Face, Lord Kenya featuring Ofori Amponsah and a host of others.

The Ghana Music Awards Gospelfest comes off at the Accra International Conference Centre on Sunday, March 5 and will see performances from all the nominees in the gospel category of this year's awards alongside Rebecca Malope and Sammy Okposo.

The curtain will be drawn with a mega beach jam at the La Pleasure Beach on Monday, March 6 dubbed the Ghana Music Awards Celebration Jam.

Ghana Music Awards is a Charterhouse event and is supported by Areeba, Unique Trust Financial Services, Western Union Money Transfer and Gulder.