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| Obour |
At a regular meeting of the Nominations Committee held at the Board Room of the Musicians Union of Ghana office in Accra, the two young hiplife musicians whose hit songs have been generally rated to be among the contenders for the Most Popular Song award, were summoned to defend their songs.
To discourage the use of indecent lyrics in music, the GMA traditionally excludes offending songs from competition.
Batman told the committee that there is no word as ?profane? in music, as music is just a way of expression. His song, Linda, he insisted, is not explicit on sex although the subject is about ?a man making love to a woman?.
He stated that he could have gone straight to call the act by name, but rather he polished it in a way so that listeners out there, would be comfortable with it. He said that, if given another chance, he won?t change anything in the song.
?Linda could mean a different thing to you and different thing to me and besides I?m cool,? he said. He said that if the rules for the Ghana Music Awards would not allow his song to be awarded so be it.
When Obour took his turn, he said his song, Konkontibaa talks about the daily stages in one?s life. The song, he emphasised, is about people who have talents but do not know how to use them.
Talents in the youth are sometimes not encouraged to blossom and so, Obour said, he made the song to push the youth to aspire to higher heights.
Konkontibaa, he explained, could mean a lot, so if one listens carefully to the song, ?you will understand what l want to say and realise that Konkontibaa is not profane?.
After much deliberation, Linda was ?sentenced? to non-inclusion in this year?s nominations while Konkontibaa was ?acquitted? and included in the nominations for this year. Another song that was dropped from competing in the Popular Song category is Mzbel?s Awoso Me.
Despite Linda?s exclusion, Batman himself has been nominated in five other categories and is expected to offer stiff competition to his colleagues.
The Committee members, comprising musicians, radio presenters, producers, DJs and journalists, released the list of 28 award categories, which include ?Most Popular Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Artiste of the Year, Best Male Vocal Performance (Solo/Group), Best Female Vocal Performance (Solo/Group), Hiplife Song of the Year, Hiplife Album of the Year and Hiplife Artiste of the Year,
Others are New Hiplife Artiste of the Year, Contemporary Highlife Song, Contemporary Highlife Album, Contemporary Highlife Artiste, Gospel Song of the Year, Gospel Album of the Year, Gospel Artiste of the Year, New Gospel Artiste of the Year, New Artiste of the year and Best Collaboration of the Year.
The rest are Song Writer of the Year, Reggae Song of the Year, Traditional Song of the Year, Traditional Group of the Year, Highlife Song of the Year, Best Composition of the Year, Best Music Video Directing, Recording Engineer of the Year, Record label of the Year and MUSIGA Merit Award?
With the determination of the award categories, the nomination processes are now in full swing. The various categories are being published for the general public to submit their votes after which the Selection Committee and Planning Committee will also vote.
