Dancehall artiste, MzVee has been nominated for the 2016 Black Entertainment Television (BET) Awards. MzVee, born Vera Hamenoo-Kpeda, received a nod in the Best International Act (Africa) category of the awards.
MzVee’s nomination has got many people shocked, bringing the competence of Ghana’s BET reps into question.
According to BET nomination process, “There is a voting academy made up of about 500 people from the music industry, media, and bloggers. BET sends out ballots electronically and voters nominate, in all the different categories, who they think should be award nominees. These are collated by a group called "Yangaroo" that works on other awards shows as well, and they narrow it to the top five nominees, and send that list back out to the academy to vote on the winner”.
Sarkodie, Shatta Wale, Stonebwoy, EL, Efya…… The list of artistes worthier of BET’s recognition is long. Yet they choose to go for the least common denominator.
One is left to wonder if the BET award for The International best African Act should be taken seriously at all.