Sista Afia
FEMALE HIGHLIFE/afrobeat singer, Francisca Gawugah, professionally known as Sista Afia, says award schemes in Ghana are not favouring female musicians.
According to her, the awards schemes focus more on male musicians while overlooking the efforts of female musicians.
The ‘Weather’ hit maker, in a Facebook post, said some of the female musicians she came to meet had given up on their career, adding upcoming female musicians have also started giving up.
“90 per cent of the female musicians I came to meet when coming up in 2015 have all given up, the young ones too after me have started giving up already. Don’t blame them, the politics in this industry, is purely witchcraft. Only a few are still relevant, I can count five or maybe six ladies,” she said in the post.
She mentioned that the hard work of Sefa and Gyakie last year qualified them to earn an award at the just-ended 3Music Awards.
BEATWAVES gathered that Sista Afia’s post was a suggestion for award schemes to reward the hard work of musicians in the year under review adding the rewards should not be vote-based only.
That, she believes, will encourage female musicians to work extra hard to gain more recognition.
She stressed that female musicians needed some consideration during awards nominations since they could not compete with their male counterparts who had larger fan bases.
Currently under BK Records/Ace Kandi Records management, Sista Afia has collaborations with acts including Shatta Wale, Medikal, Kofi Kinaata, Bisa Kdei, Sarkodie, Fameye, Eno Barony, and Victor AD, among others.
Groomed by highlife singer Bisa Kdei, Sista Afia is credited with a number of hit songs such as ‘Slay Queen’, ‘Bokoor’, ‘Jeje’, ‘WMT’, ‘Sika’, ‘You Got Nerves’, among others.
She has also received several accolades including the Best Hiplife Video with ‘Pass U’ and Best Hip Hop Female Video with ‘D33d3w’ by Eno Barony featuring herself at the 3rd TV Music Video Awards 2018.
BY George Clifford Owusu