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 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.
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.
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.”
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.
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.
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.
