Newly-crowned Artiste of the Year at this year’s Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMAs), EL, has said only haters will not appreciate that he deserves the coveted award which he won on Saturday May 7.

“There are always going to be criticisms coming from all sorts of places for different types of reasons. They are haters, that is what haters are there for, to be laughed at and draw inspiration from, and I guess that is just about it,” he told Class FM’s Natalia Andoh in an exclusive interview shortly after the awards.

EL, who is known in private life as Elom Adablah, picked up five awards at the 2016 edition of the biggest music event in the country.

EL was rewarded for his excellent work for hit songs including ‘Mi Naa Bo Po’, ‘Koko’ and ‘Shelele’, which were released within the year in review.

He beat other musicians including Sarkodie, Stonebwoy, Bisa Kdei, SP Kofi Sarpong, and VVIP, who were all competing for the most sought-after award.

His closest contender was Bisa Kdei, who picked up four awards including the Album of the Year with ‘Breakthrough’ and Sarkodie, who won the Record of the Year for ‘Bra’, along with two other awards.

But some industry players and a section of music lovers are crying foul over the choice of EL as the overall winner of the awards.

However, the sound engineer, who was the brain behind songs like ‘You Go Kill Me’ and ‘Dangerous’, which shot Sarkodie to fame, argues that: “If you do not know EL, then you do not know what EL is about, but those who know EL are those who crowned EL and that those are the majority of the people. There are always going to be people who dispute”.

He said he was not surprised of winning up to five awards and walking away with the ultimate award, too, because he has “been working hard all year round with his team and it has been an endless process from studio to shows through a tortuous long journey. I definitely saw it coming and it was only left to God to solidify it”.