Shatta Wale and his family on stage
Shatta Wale was the topmost winner at the 2019 edition of 3Music Awards, which was held at the Fantasy Dome at the Trade Fair Centre in Accra on Saturday night.
He picked eight awards at the ceremony to become the artiste with the most wins in the history of the award after his four awards at the inaugural ceremony in 2018.
Shatta, who was the first artiste to perform during the award ceremony, was also the first to win an award.
His ‘Gringo’ song opened the wins with the viral song of the year while he also won the reggae/dancehall song of the year.
The rest of the awards included reggae/dancehall artiste of the year, digital artiste of the year and video of the year with ‘Gringo’.
His fan base— Shatta Movement— for the second time was adjudged fan army of the year at the ceremony while ‘My Level’ picked up the award for song of the year.
He sealed the wins with the music man of the year (male artiste of the year) award to beat his colleagues.
He became emotional and shed tears when he picked the award for the video of the year award.
Saturday’s 3Music Awards was the second of its kind. It was hosted by Lexis Bill of Joy FM and Shirley Tibilla (Cookie) of GHone TV with performances from Cina Soul, Kofi Mole, Bethel Revival Choir, Medikal, Akwaboah Jnr, Adina, Wendy Shay, Victor AD, La Meme Gang, Joey B, Rocky Dawuni and Samini.
It was broadcast live on Joy Prime and Dstv to thousands of viewers across the continent.
The award ceremony turned out to be about Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy, as fans of both artistes anticipated winning over the other.
Stonebwoy, who was not present at the ceremony, was the second biggest winner of the night.
The Ashaiman-based artiste also won the Afrobeats song of the year for ‘Bawasaaba’, album of the year for ‘Epistles of Mama’ and most streamed artiste on Boomplay award.
Other winners were Kuami Eugene, who won the highlife artiste of the year while his hit ‘Wish Me Well’ won highlife song of the year.
The gospel song of the year, gospel artiste of the year and group of the year went to gospel group Bethel Revival Choir.
Producer of the year went to MOG Beatz while King Promise won hiplife song of the year with ‘CCTV’. Wendy Shay was on stage to pick award for breakthrough artiste of the year while Medikal also picked the hiplife/hiphop artiste of the year.
The best Ghanaian international artiste also went to Rocky Dawuni.
Legendary highlife musician Obuoba J.A. Adofo, music producer Mark Okraku Mantey and legendary gospel musician Prof. Kofi Abraham all received honorary awards.
The surprise of the evening was Sarkodie, who didn’t pick any award.
By Francis Addo