Fans of highlife artiste, Bisa Kdei, have raised red flags about the Mansa artiste being “swerved” the Artiste of the Year title when the event was held at the Accra International Conference Centre last Saturday.
Bisa was beaten by rapper EL to the 2015 Artiste of the Year award, much to the surprise of many patrons present and it seems his fans were left completely disappointed about the outcome.
‘Stolen verdict,! Silent robbery!” was how some of Kdei’s fans who complained to the Graphic Showbiz described their feeling. However, a member of the board of the awards and Head of Communications at Multiple Concepts, George Quaye discounted claims that Kdei was robbed of the Artiste of the Year despite his huge public appeal.
“There’s no way an artiste can ever be robbed at the VGMA. The steps to winning an award have always been transparent and accessible. If anyone is in doubt, the person can call KPMG to get the results and how the decisions were making wings panned out.”
Yaw Sam, who described himself as Bisa’s number one fan, couldn’t fathom why his “idol” missed the biggest award on the day.
“I still can’t believe that Bisa Kdei didn’t win the Artiste of the Year. Maybe, Charterhouse can give us a better explanation on what they look out for because this beats me. What is this?” he queried.
According to him, it was unreasonable for an artiste to win the Most Popular and Album of the Year awards and yet, lose out on the Artiste of the Year award.
“Bisa Kdei has been robbed, yes, the guy has been robbed, because I don’t know any song that beat Mansa and Brother Brother last year. If there’s any, then I throw the challenge for that song to be named. This is so unfair,” were the words of Adwubi Acheampong, another fan.
Since the discussion on who deserved the Artiste of the Year heated up prior to the awards, Bisa Kdei had come under heavy scrutiny for his lack of showmanship on stage. That, many pundits believed, wasn’t a mark of an Artiste in contention for the ultimate but Nii Armoh, a fan of Kdei disagrees.
“What kind of performance are they expecting from him? Well, I read the criteria for the Artiste of the Year and being a good performer wasn’t there. It stated categorically that the winner must have audience appeal. Now, which artiste enjoyed audience appeal than Bisa Kdei? Mansa was played at every event and the people’s reaction to the song was phenomenal,” he said.
Multiple Concepts’ Head of Communication maintained: “The decision making wings are the board (30 per cent), the academy (30 per cent) and the public (40 per cent). Bisa won four out of his six total nominations with Kaywa, winning Sound Engineer of the Year with Mansa as well. He had a great evening and ought to be commended.
“I humbly implore his followers and fans to focus on celebrating with him, rather than debating on what could have been. Every nominated artiste could have won. Bisa won some awards and others also won. In the end, GH Music was celebrated and that is what’s important,” he emphasised.
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