Kuami Eugene performing on stage
Kuami Eugene is the proud winner of the artiste of the year award at the 2020 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMAs), which was held on Saturday.
He has beaten top artistes like Sarkodie, Kofi Kinaata, Diana Hamilton and Medikal to win the most revered category of the award ceremony.
The Lynx Entertainment signee also won the highlife artiste of the year award, summing up two awards during the night.
“… From Fadama (a suburb of Accra) I don’t expect this. I am not joking—from Fadama I didn’t expect this. Thank you so much Eugene Mensa, I will never forget this. God bless you Lynx Entertainment…,” he said in his acceptance speech.
Many music observers had tipped fellow artiste Kofi Kinaata to win the artiste of the year award, but he rather went home with three solid awards like songwriter of the year, most popular song and hiplife song of the year.
“Team Move is proud and grateful for all the support regardless. Goodnight,” he said after the award ceremony.
Other winners at the awards night were Celestine Donkor, who won the gospel song of the year and female vocalist of the year awards, while Diana Hamilton picked up the gospel artiste of the year award.
Medikal’s ‘Omo Ada’ won him the hip-life song of the year in addition to his hiplife/hip-hop artiste of the year award, while Kwesi Arthur surprisingly beat Medikal, Eno Barony, Sarkodie, E.L, Teephlow and Strongman to win best rapper of the year.
Ras Kuuku and J. Derobie each went home with reggae dancehall artiste of the year and reggae dancehall song of the year awards respectively.
Kelvyn Boy, who advocated the inclusion of Afrobeats category to the award scheme, lost the Afrobeats song of the year category to Dope Nation, who won with the song ‘Zanku’. The hip-hop song of the year category also went to Kofi Mole, while best collaboration of the year went to Sarkodie and Prince Bright. Everyone applauded Fameye for winning the new artiste of the year award because he put in a lot of hard work just like Kidi, whose ‘Sugar’ album won album of the year. Gasmilla also won the Vodafone green ambassador award, his first award at the VGMAs.
The 21st VGMAs was a three-day virtual event which was held at the Accra International Conference Centre in (AICC). It started on Friday night through to Sunday night.
It was an unusual break in the event’s calendar as result of the Covid-19 outbreak. The show was held on the various nights amid observing Covid-19 safety protocols.
The first badge of the awards was given at the Friday night ceremony which was hosted by Giovanni Caleb and Sika Osei.
Among awards given included best instrumentalist of the year, Emmanuel Bludu; male vocalist of the year went to MOG, best international collaboration went to Sarkodie ft Rudeboy and African artiste of the year went to Burner Boy.
The rest included record of the year, Okyeame Kwame; best video of the year, Cina Soul; best group of the year, Dope Nation; best producer of the year, MOG and lifetime achievement award went to veteran musician George Darko.
Artistes like Sista Afia, Fameye, Eno Barony, Kofi Mole and Kevin Boy took turns on stage to thrill audience on Friday night. Eno received praises for her performance.
Saturday’s event was the second in the chain of events, and it was hosted by Kofi Okyere Darko (KOD) and Berla Mundi, both of whom brought a lot of excitement to the show.
On stage to perform on Saturday were E.L, Celestine Donkor, Epixode, Kofi Kinaata, Kuami Eugene, Kidi, Adina, King Promise, Darkovibes, Efya, Akwaboah, Medikal, Kwesi Arthur and Nakorex, who brought a lot of maturity on stage to excite the show’s audience.
The 2020 VGMAs was dubbed ‘The VGMA Weekend’, and it was organised by Charterhouse to celebrate steep culture, vivacious music and iconic artistes.
This event was peaceful unlike the 2019 edition which was marred by a gun and blows on stage.
It could be recalled that the 2019 edition was an exhibition of sheer lawlessness when two of Ghana’s rival dancehall artistes Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy clashed on stage. They have since been banned from the award and their case is still in court.
By Francis Addo