Regional Music Awards Organizers advocate for collaboration

Organizers of regional music awards are advocating for a collaboration between themselves to strengthen their gains.

In a Twitter space discussion on ‘The state of regional music awards’ which was hosted by Volta Creative Arts Industry, the representatives of the various regional music awards intimated that, collaboration between themselves in the areas of giving platforms to the various Artistes of the year from other regions on platforms of the others will help them sell their Artistes in other regions.

Highlighting sponsorship as the main challenge of these regional awards, the organizers mentioned that despite the financial challenge they encounter, they are not perturbed by it.

“We pride ourselves as the first regional awards in Ghana. And so far, we have done ten editions of this. We have had the opportunity to project Artistes from the region to other parts of the world so the Central Music Awards has been very instrumental in the lives of the Artistes” Mani Kay, Public Relations Officer (PRO) of Central Music Awards mentioned.

In his submission, Samuel Baah, popularly known as Sammy Flex who is a board member of 3 Music Awards said that he has advocated for regional inclusion in the 3 Music Awards so it is up to the regional music awards organizers to work harder to justify their inclusion in the popular national music awards. As an instrumental person in all regional music awards in Ghana, Mr. Baah added that, the organizers should be intentional about telling their stories well to the public and their stakeholders. “In all of this, the companies want to see the numbers so present it well. Let them know that during the awards, we are number 1 on Twitter, these are the number of people who came for the event and these are some of the sponsors and what they had from sponsoring the awards. When you are able to out together all of these, you will get the companies come to your region to sponsor.”

Speaking on some of the achievements of the Western Music Awards, Nana Kwesi Coomson, the PRO mentioned that “the Artistes now have good introductions as a result of the nominations and awards won. One of our success stories has been an Artiste from the Western Region who was chosen over a nationally recognized Artiste to perform in the USA because of an award he won from the Western Music Awards whereas the other Artiste didn’t have any award to his credit. So it is fulfilling to know that we are recognized by the international promoters and stakeholders.”

Jonathan Nii Laryea, the representative of the Volta Music Awards also added that with more collaborations between the organizers, there is more they could do to ensure their individual successes.

In his submission, Okley Solomon Kofi who represented the Eastern Music Awards added that the understanding of awards in Ghana is also a challenge that should be worked on. Sharing an experience, he mentioned that for a scheme that gives 70% of power to the public to determine via votes and 30% to the board via votes, he is keen on ensuring that whoever gets the most votes is declared winner. His assertions he said are backed by the voting statistics which is verifiable.

With firm belief that with the if the regional music awards come together to have one voice, they will be a force to reckon with, Samuel Etornam Kwasi Lavoe, CEO of Volta Music Awards said that he is determined to ensure the unity amongst these organizers.

(Story: Nana Kwesi Coomson)