The Board of the Telecel Ghana Music Awards has clarified why King Paluta’s ‘Makoma’ was not nominated in this year’s awards scheme.
In response to rumors suggesting the song’s exclusion was due to supposed profanity, a press release signed by Robert Klah, Head of Communications and Public Events at Charterhouse, addressed the issue.
According to the organisers, the rule preventing multiple songs from the same artist in a single category is the primary reason for the exclusion.
The release explained, “Each artiste can have only one song per category, except for Best Collaboration, Best International Collaboration, and Best Music Video.” This rule is designed to prevent vote-splitting and ensure that artists have the most substantial chance of winning.
The Board further stated that, in the case of King Paluta’s songs, they applied this rule by selecting the more popular track, based on research including streaming numbers and airplay from 175 radio stations. “Aseda” was determined to be the more popular choice in both the Highlife and Most Popular Song of the Year categories.
The Board acknowledged that while this rule has been relaxed in past editions, it is now being strictly enforced, limiting each artist to one nomination per category.
This is not the first time the ‘one-song-per-category’ rule has been implemented. In 2016, the same principle was applied to Bisa Kdei when he had two hit songs, “Mansa” and “Bother Brother,” but only “Mansa” received a nomination.
Despite speculations that “Brother Brother” was excluded due to its explicit content, reports indicate that Bisa Kdei was advised to choose his biggest song for nomination. He opted for “Mansa” based on the Board’s policy.
The statement concludes by noting that the Telecel Ghana Music Awards has returned to this original rule, meaning that only one song per artist will be considered in each category moving forward.