Does it really matter whether you’re watching live at the auditorium or doing so from the comfort of your home behind your TV set? This is a 360 review of the major events at Ghana’s biggest music awards night.
The 26th edition of the Telecel Ghana Music Awards took place last night at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC). The event, dubbed “Ghana music’s biggest night,” brought together the entirety of Ghana’s showbiz industry: musicians, celebrities, dignitaries, ministers, influencers, you and I.
For the many who watched via screens from home, “we dey together.” For those who got to experience the event live at the AICC, count yourself lucky, or maybe not, or maybe yes. We shall discuss the TGMA 26 experience from Genesis till Bortey Man picked up the Artiste of the Year award.
The red carpet was earlier announced to be an invitation-only event. From the experiences of previous editions, this seemed to be a brilliant idea to reduce overcrowding at the venue.
I must admit that that was, to a large extent, attained. However, the red carpet venue still looked pretty disorganized. For a moment, you wish the camera didn’t give an establishing shot. Leaving the cameras on Regina Van Helvert and Bliss King would have made it more appealing, at least to the watching-from-home gang.
You all saw the outfits your celebrities rocked to the carpet. I leave you to be the judge of how good, bad, or worse their outfits were. Compared to previous years, this limited-access red carpet still could not amount to less time being spent on that session. How unfortunate.
The auditorium was set, and it all took off with a short but electrifying performance from Ayisi. “Our Burna Boy be that,” a comment on X read. Charterhouse, the stage was exceptional. Information on the internet revealed that Kweku Smoke was initially billed to open the show but… we’ll get into that pretty shortly. A 7/10 performance from the Record of the Year winner, Ayisi.
Performances trickled in quite quickly, with Daughters of Glorious Jesus, Empress Gifty and Yaw Darling taking turns to get people off their seats. Daughters of Glorious Jesus turned the event into a serious convention. People thought they were already at the gathering of the saints. That’s how Jesus’s Glorious Daughters are supposed to do. Jesus must be proud.
This year has been an enormous upgrade in terms of performances compared to previous years. A lot of the artistes came not only to sing, but to display concepts, to entertain all our senses. Stonebwoy put up such an intense performance. Artistically perfect, breathtaking. Too good. KiDi, such an enjoyable performance. Peter, Peter, Peter! What an abomination of a performance! King Promise, the intercontinental man. King Paluta, I loved how he creatively weaved the rap verses into the songs during the performance. Very brilliant.
The tribute performances were so properly executed. Kudos to Adina, Adomaa and Titi Owusu. The legendary Yaw Sarpong’s tribute performance… even in his absence, his music got the whole room on their feet, singing to the glory of God. God bless Yaw Sarpong. God bless Maame Tiwaa. Kojo Cue literally thought he was playing the music from a CD. Congratulations to the man Yaw Sarpong for winning the Lifetime Achievement Award as well.
The Gen Zs showed up and showed out. Moliy, Moliycoco babe! Beeztrap KOTM, Kojo Blak and Kojo Manuel. The future is truly in safe hands. DJ Virusky, those mixes were too good. Kweku Smoke, Kweku Jesus, Agyekum’s brother. The boys were so impatient to see your performance. However, a few things must be addressed properly for a better experience. According to Olele Salvador Network, Kweku Smoke was indisposed, for which reason his microphone was turned off towards the end of the performance. That aside, the stagecraft made so much sense. Trapper man!
Midway through the show, the segment featuring Comedian Foster Romanus and AJ Sarpong aimed to inject some humour into the event. However, many viewers felt it missed the mark. The jokes didn’t quite land, and the session struggled to keep the momentum going. It might be worth rethinking that segment in future editions to better serve the flow of the show.
Dear Charterhouse, people looked very dull and sleepy after midnight. Year after year, the major concern for all attendees and viewers from home has always been about time. The standard closing time for this event must not be thirty minutes past three in the morning. It’s an even worse feeling when you’re watching from home. Clearly, the red carpet takes too much time. What exactly did the “strictly by invitation” mean? How about you get a list of people coming for the red carpet and follow that list strictly? If the red carpet starts at 7, we shouldn’t be closing at 10:30.
As the earlier performances seemed short, I was hopeful that we would know our Artiste of the Year earlier than we did last year. Length-wise, there has not been any significant improvement from TGMA25.
The awards on the night seemed like a true celebration of Ghana music. This year was not for one artiste, it was for the industry. Big congratulations to Kweku Smoke, King Paluta, Stonebwoy, and the 5 Star General himself, the Artiste of the Year, King Promise.
We go again next year. Regardless of all the flaws, this remains the biggest and most revered music awards scheme in Ghana, celebrating the people, the culture and the music. Let us do better next year. TGMA26 overall gets a 7 out of 10 from Senason.
DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
DISCLAIMER: The Views, Comments, Opinions, Contributions and Statements made by Readers and Contributors on this platform do not necessarily represent the views or policy of Multimedia Group Limited.
