International magazine and music ranking outlet, Billboard has released a list of the most-watched homegrown artistes in 11 African countries for the 2019-2020 year.

Ghana's Shatta Wale, Sarkodie, Stonebwoy, Diana Hamilton, and Kofi Kinaata also made the cut.

However, the list generated debate among music lovers in Ghana regarding how the top five Ghanaian musicians were ranked.

The first three artists on the list, Shatta Wale, Sarkodie, and Stonebwoy’s rank hasn’t been disputed that much. It’s Diana Hamilton’s nod which is in contention.

A lot of critics claim hot artists like Joe Mettle, KiDi, Kuami Eugene, Medikal, or even Kofi Kinaata, who came 5th on the list, should have been ranked ahead of Diana Hamilton.

So, Pulse.com.gh's David Mawuli has done a simple and short but insightful analysis of why Diana Hamilton’s rank might be right.

Per Billboard’s metrics, the artistes were ranked based on their performance on YouTube only between May 2019 and May 2020 – a period of one year.

It said the totals represent an artiste’s total views from, within the artiste’s respective country. They do not represent global views.



Another thing to note is that the metric doesn’t exclude old videos. If only there’s a spike in the video in the year under review, then the artiste is likely to make it to the list.

This means that a Ghanaian artiste can get 100 million views on YouTube but if 99.9 percent of his views come from outside the country, he/she can’t make the cut.

For instance, Diana Hamilton’s direct competitor Joe Mettle has racked in 8.1million views for his biggest song, “Bo Noo Ni”, which was released in 2017.

His second highest is his 2018 hit single, “My Everything”, which has 4.9million views.

It is followed by “Wonderful Merciful Saviour” with 3.2million views, “Onwanwani” with 2.3, and “Amen” featuring South Africa’s Ntokozo Mbambo with 2.1million views. There are three other videos that have a million views each.



Diana Hamilton, on the other hand, has 8.6million views for her biggest song, “Mo Ne Yo”, which was released in 2018. Apart from that, she has 12 music videos that have passed the million-streaming mark.

If we calculate the top five videos of Joe Mettle and Diana Hamilton, the former triumphs. But that is not the case. It doesn’t matter how many views you get. What Billboard focuses on is the local streaming numbers.

This means out of Joe Mettle’s massive streaming numbers; he received more views from foreign countries than Ghana.

This is why the likes of Medikal, KiDi, Kuami Eugene, Kwesi Arthur, and other top artistes who have awesome streaming numbers on YouTube couldn’t make the cut.