MUSIC RIGHT OWNERS CALL FOR PROPER STRUCTURES, TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND RESPECT

Stakeholders of the Ghana music industry consisting of composers, musicians and producers has held a press conference in Accra to deliberate on the state of rights protection, and the collection of royalties.

At a well attended event, the group called for GHAMRO, the body tasked with administering issues of royalties in Ghana, to within the shortest time, organize a general meeting.

They also pressed for GHAMRO to make public, its financial statements, as well as conduct fresh elections.

A tightly-kept structure, transparency, accountability and greater respect for their creative works were the key things the right owners suggested the collective management organisation ought to push most. Absence of all these, has led to a complete mess, they said.

“On behalf of my colleagues, concerned music right owners, the Musicians Union of Ghana, Ghana Association of Phonographic Industry and in my capacity as an interim Board member and one of the leading right owners and stakeholder, join our campaign to introduce institutional reforms to ensure appropriate compensation for the use of our music for any commercial activity,” musician Kojo Antwi said.

STONEBWOY SAYS THAT "MUSIC IS NOT JUST ABOUT NOISE MAKING"

“After the just ended 2014 VGMA, I immediately released a masterpiece titled ‘CantCool’ produced by Richie to rather keep my fans and loved ones busy as there are more good songs and pending projects to be executed instead of arguing and worrying about me not winning the Dancehall/Reggae Song of the Year”, Stonebwoy indicated.

According to the BhimNation leader, he believes Ghanaians can attest that his kind of music is not the stagnant type, “if you love my kind of music and you know dancehall and reggae music; and you are a good music listener, you know music is not just about the hype but what it comes with, that is how come songs on my first album are being played to date.”

The Afro-dancehallist further noted that they (BhimNation team) have a whole lot of work to be done as efforts and preparations are being made towards his second album hailed as ‘Necessary Evil’ with which five songs along with their videos including ‘Not Again’, ‘Kunaani’, ‘Submarine’, ‘Happiness’ featuring Jamaican Superstar, Jah Vinci and ‘Run Go’, (a Kenyan production) that have seen many artistes including a Jamaican artiste rhyme on the rhythm has been released since the beginning of the year.

He noted that ‘CantCool’ video has just been done shooting and he is with the hope of shooting other videos including ‘Ex-girlfriend’ featuring Mugeez which was his first track released in 2014.

Stonebwoy further noted that the vision of BMG for the year 2014 is still in progress as per their plans that are gradually being achieved with quite a huge number of encouragements from their fan base and love ones which keeps growing by day.

“Meaning aside everything, people look up to me to be releasing more good music although it is in recent times attention is being given to Dancehall and Reggae music, it is not just about the noise and that is what we have been working on across the globe especially, Jamaica”, he added.

The BMG artiste is billed to perform on Afro-Dance Festival headlined by Iyanya at The Sand in Amsterdam on May 31 as well as other minor shows in Hamburg and Italy just in the course of the month.

However, EP of Necessary Evil have been released on iTunes and other tracks coming up will be finally fixed on the album which will be all set for release later in the year.

GHANAIAN ACTORS TO BOYCOTT GHANA MOVIE AWARDS

The Ghana Actors Guild (GAG) President, Mr. Samuel Nii Odoi Mensah, has told Razz Newspaper that, the guild will have nothing to do with the Ghana Movie Awards and have even not been part of the awards scheme right from day one.

The Actors’ Guild’s position on the movie awards came to light immediately after the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG) issued a press release last week, warning its members across the country to stay away from the Ghana Movie Awards or face the wrath of the association.

Mr. Odoi Mensah explained that the guild took its position to boycott the movie awards some years back. However, Fred Nuamah, founder of Ghana Movie Awards, pleaded with the guild at that time to be given the opportunity to put things at the right place. Contrary to what he pleaded for, Fred keeps repeating the same mistakes year after year.

He added that FIPAG did not support the guild in its decision to boycott the awards. This was because; FIPAG did not make out any sense from the guild’s decision to do so. Hence, the members did not give full attention to that decision.

“From day one, we – the actor’s guild have been complaining about the awards. We even told the film producers to redraw from the award but because some of them have selfish interests, they decided not to mind us” Mr. Odoi told Razz Newspaper.

He continued that, he hasn’t gotten time to go through the official press release from the Film Producers Association of Ghana (FIPAG) to know whether they – Actors’ Guild – agree with the reasons FIPAG has outlined.

“I haven’t gotten the opportunity to go through the release of the film producers association of Ghana, but since they are part of the main stakeholders of the film industry, whatever decisions they take affect us, so if they have pulled out of the awards, automatically we also pull out. It’s their movies that are going to be used to reward the movie stars, so we can’t do without them” Mr. Odoi said.

He advised Fred Nuamah not to forget he’s dealing with actors and film made by film producers so he cannot do the awards without giving them the necessary respect. “Can there be a music award without MUSIGA? Or awards for doctors and nurses without involving doctors association?” Mr. Odoi quizzed.

When asked what the Guild will do if Fred Nuamah decides to meet executives of FIPAG and the Ghana Actors Guild to iron out their differences, Mr. Odoi said he cannot promise anything at the moment because they have given Fred Nuamah enough chance to correct his mistakes which he failed to do.

Talking about the way forward for the film industry and how the film industry can get a credible award scheme, Mr. odoi said; “Very soon, FIPAG and GAG will meet to officially come out with a plan, and how to get a proper and credible award scheme.”

Razz Newspaper placed a number of calls to Fred Nuamah for his response to the Actors Guild’s position but he did not pick up our calls as at the time of going to press.

JEWEL ACKAH BLASTS OBOUR

One of Ghana’s prominent highlife musicians, Jewel Ackah, has descended heavily on the current administration of the Musicians Union of Ghana (MUSIGA) saying its President, Bice Osei Kuffour and his executives lack enough competence to manage the affairs at MUSIGA.

The ace musician who sounded worried about the current state of the music industry told BEATWAVES in an interview last Friday in Accra that the elders of the Union have been sidelined by Obour and his cohorts who are rather inexperienced, heartless and do not have the welfare of the entire musicians at heart.

Jewel Ackah also hinted that Obour had failed to involve elders of the industry in their decision-making process, and stressed that “the root cause of the problems facing the Ghanaian musician today is bad leadership, that is what we are seeing at MUSIGA right now.”

According to him, Obour lacks better understanding of what he is doing and “as far as governing music is concerned, Obour has failed totally and has also failed to live up to expectation.”

Jewel Ackah, who described Obour as a wrong choice for MUSIGA presidency explained that Obour had created more harm to the Union than good “and most of the musicians are not happy with him.”

He stressed that there were several cracks including bad leadership in the Union, and it was high time the stakeholders came together to help find solutions to the numerous problems confronting the Union.

The ace musician continued that “the sad news is that musicians in Ghana today have no idea what they are due, several donors have been said to donate to musicians’ fund and nobody knows how much and how those monies have been disbursed.”

He also condemned the government for releasing the GH¢2 million (¢20 billion) budget allocation to the creative arts industry to MUSIGA instead of the Music Council of Ghana (MCG).

He said the circumstances under which the government released the money to MUSIGA alone was quite mysterious, especially when the Minister of Finance, in reading the budget statement, had stated that the money was meant for the creative arts industry.

He told BEATWAVES that the stakeholders in the creative arts industry were unhappy because they have not been properly informed about how the GH¢2 million money was expended.

He said the money that was given to MUSIGA was tax payers’ money, which he thinks should be accounted for.

“I believe Obour should be made to acount for the money because we don’t know how the money was used.”

On the issue of Ghana Music Right Organisation (GHAMRO), Jewel Ackah said he personally does not see anything wrong with them, “they are doing a very good job and we need to support them. Fighting will not solve our problems. We need to come together and work as a team to meet the challenges ahead.”

SHATTA LOSES VGMA’S GHC 16,000

Shatta Wale had wanted to donate the money he would have received from winning an award at this year’s Vodafone Ghana Music Award (VGMA) to the children’s home but for absenting himself on the night, he has forfeited a whopping GHC16,000.

In 2012, Charterhouse – organizers of VGMA, informed the media that every winner of an award shall be given money. GHC 5,000to the winner of the covetous Artiste of the Year and GHC1,500 to the other categories. In 2013, the amount for Artiste of the Year was increased to GHC 10,000 and that for the other categories also increase to GHC 3,000 respectively.

Charterhouse added that any nominee, who does not attend the event or absent him or herself when the fellow is announced as a winner, forfeits the promised money.

It’s a promise we made to the nominees that if they fail to attend the event on the award’s night, they forfeit the money but will still receive the plaque, VGMA Board member, Nii Aryittey Hammond, told Razz Newspaper. Mr. Hammond intimated that the board maintained the same amount – GH10,000 for winner of Artiste of the Year and GHC3,000 for the other categories respectively; as it was last year.

Reacting to the board’s decision, manager of Shatta Wale, Bull Dog, told Razz Newspaper that they are not worried about the fact that they have lost the money. According to him, they intended to donate that money to the children’s home.

Shatta Wale, winner of this year’s Artiste of the Year (as well as the winner for Vodafone Song of the Year and Reggae/Dancehall Song of the Year), was not present at this year’s awards night. He disclosed to his fans via Facebook that Charthouse contacted him to perform but the latter failed in meeting his performance fee of GH70, 000 hence his refusal to perform on the awards.

Though he was not present at the venue (Accra International Conference Center) to perform or receive his awards, Shatta Wale surfaced outside the auditorium late in the night when lots of patrons of the event had left.

Speaking on Peace FM’s Entertainment Review on Thursday, 8th May, 2014, Bull Dog disclosed the actual reason why they concluded that Shatta Wale should not perform on the night. “A week or two before the awards, we had feedback from our ‘hardcore’ fans telling us that if Shatta does not win an award, they might vandalize the event.”

At last year’s VGMA, Shatta Wale lost the Reggae/Dancehall Song of the Year to promising female dancehall artist, Kaakie. Crestfallen and fumed Shatta Wale went into pissy mode claiming he had been robbed of the award. He was seen angrily screaming at the lobby of the venue and was thrown out and detained by the security officers.

Later, he took to twitter and vented his spleen on Charterhouse “fuck Ghana music industry, fuck Charterhouse and I mean this from my heart. I don’t need them in any way. Big up to all Shatta Wale fans” as well as composed a song hooked on the chorus “me no need your award, Charterhouse” which subsequently enjoyed massive airplay.

‘NO, WE’RE JUST FRIENDS’ - EAZZY DENIES KEITTA RE-UNION

Last year, when Big Brother lovebirds, Eazzy and Keitta, broke up their relationship, the pair ended all their links with each other including on social networks, twitter and

facebook. The rather “unfriendly ice” seems to have thawed since a few days ago and the pair are back on speaking terms.

This came to light last Saturday when Keitta commented on Eazzy’s red dress that she wore during the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards last week Saturday. He wrote on twitter, “In that red dress, hot!” and Eazzy replied “Thanx hun”.

The compliments from Keitta and Eazzy’s reply sent many of their fans on the social media to ask if the ex-couple were back into each others arms.

But in an interview with Showbiz last Tuesday, Eazzy denied a reunion and said that Keitta’s remark was only a compliment from a friend which had been

misinterpreted by the public.

“ I admit that when we broke up last year, we were not chatting with each other on social media but that is in the past now. Keitta and I are very cool now and we don’t have any bad blood between us. We have both moved on as mature people. Why there is so much fuss about Keitta’s compliment, I dont understand”.

The Wengeze singer said that she had been amazed about the large volume of messages on them in the social media space since that Saturday.

With regards to how she felt about the comments passed by Keitta, she said “I didn’t feel anything special about the comments. It was just normal and no emotions attached”.

When asked if there was any chance of them coming back together as a couple, Eazzy told Showbiz that she wouldn’t want to make any comment that might be misinterpreted by people.

“I can’t talk about the future but Keitta is a nice person and at this time, I can only wish him well. Personally, I don’t harbour any bad feelings against him and I know the feeling is mutual as well” she said.

Even though she earned a lot of praises following her sterling performance as co-host of the VGMA last year, Eazzy has rather come under some criticisms this year, particularly with her choice of makeup, a “mistake” she called it. She dropped a hint that soon she will come up with her own lipstick line of products.

Eazzy is a musician but recently, she gave movies a shot when she acted in Yvonne Nelson’s Single and Married Complicated which is yet to be premiered.

Currently, she is shooting the video of her new single, Back to the Bone and she is also promoting her new single, Emergency, released last month.

EFYA IS BIGGER THAN ME – IRENE LOGAN

Irene Logan who is undoubtedly one of Ghana’s finest R ‘n’ B and pop singers last Wednesday disclosed on Hits FM that her former partner Janet Awindor who is known in showbiz as Efya is bigger than her, Flex newspaper has learnt.

This concession was made during an interview with Ibrahim Ben Brako also known as IB on a segment called scoop. He asked the pop star if she had heard the rumour in town that Efya is bigger than her currently.

She said: “Efya is bigger than me because I went for a break to study the trend and the system of the music industry so that gave her the opportunity to ground herself in the industry. Now I am back with a unique style,” she disclosed.

Irene who is strongly influenced by Mariah Carey, Beyonce, Mary J Blige, Whitney Houston and R. Kelly also disclosed that this song ‘In Love with the Devil’ which was released was released in; January 2014 was written by Asem.

She also said she will be releasing her latest album this year but before the launch of the album she will be releasing singles after singles to whet the appetite of her fans.

When asked the relationship between her and Asem, this is what she had to say: “what is between Asem and myself is friendship, loyalty and respect; nothing more than that.”

INI EDO DIVES INTO LAW

Who would believe that Superstar actress Ini Edo would find it exciting to go back to school to study despite the nature of her job.

The actress has just been offered a scholarship to study Law in the National Open University in Nigeria.

Excited Ini shared the photo of her admission letter with her fans saying it was a dream come true. very soon the beautiful actress would be a degree holder in Law.

We can recall that some Nollywood Actors dived into law school even when they were still acting, which has helped them in some way and has given them an upper hand to go into politics, typical examples are kenneth Okonkwo and Richard Mofe Damijo. Congratulations to the actress.

GTV'S ‘MOVIE CHATROOM’ PRESENTER IRENE ASANTE DEAD

The death is reported of GTV Presenter, Irene Asante. She died this morning, a close relation has revealed.

Miss Asante is said to have kicked the bucket at the 37 Military hospital in Accra, we are told.

She was the ex wife of producer Edward Osei Hammer of the Last Two Music Group, whom she had two kids with.

Hammer, who confirmed news of her passing to us on phone a while ago said he was on his way to the military hospital.

She hosted the show on GTV.

More soon.

GHANA ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS TO LAUNCH IN JULY

The maiden edition of the Ghana Entertainment Awards will launch in July.

Rich Game Records, an Accra-based events company, are putting together the scheme to reward on annual basis, deserving personalities across the many sectors of the entertainment industry in Ghana.

Across music, movies, sports, art and entertainment writers, bloggers, and radio and television presenters among many categories, deserving individuals will be awarded in what the organizers say would purely be on merit.

Henry Okum, CEO, of Rich Game, says, “We are excited about this project. This is our maiden edition and we are serious about making it the industry’s foremost scheme for the people who do all the hard work.”

“The scheme,” he adds, “you will realize has come to appreciate the efforts these amazing people put into their craft.“This is a one scheme that is putting everybody in music, movies, sports, radio and television, and other sub sectors, as well as those who report on them, on one big platform to honour them.”

A novelty, the Ghana Entertainment Awards has come to fill a void. The call for a scheme that is broad based has been heeded with its introduction. “Now, there is a scheme that is ready to go beyond just one sector, and include all. Now, there is going to be widespread content.”

This year’s event will take place in November, the organizers say.