As the year 2016 comes to a successful end in some few days ahead, Ghbase.com makes a retrospect of the happenings that embraced the Ghanaian showbiz industry throughout the year.
This year can be classified as a ‘black year’ for many Ghanaians since it has witnessed the deaths of many young promising talents and veterans in the showbiz industry.
The tyranny of death did not only lay it cold hands on only showbiz personalities but prominent people in the country as well. Dickson Kwaku Amponsah, a free-lance writer on his Facebook timeline on the 20th November 2016 took the pain to compile a list of celebrity deaths that has been registered in the country as at the aforementioned date.
The web of death had in its custody a number of celebrities whose tremendous contribution can never be underestimated.
Basically, this article will seek to examine the showbiz circle in Ghana, blending both the ugly and the good side of it in the year 2016 under review.
Forgive me to remind you of the demise of these showbiz personalities whose contribution to the growth of our motherland was enormous.
Namely; Nkomode (Actor), Confidence Kwadwo Baah (Journalist), George Forest (Music Producer), Vibrant Fya (Musician), Uriah Asante (Footballer), Daasebre Gyamenah (Musician), J. B. Danquah (Politician), Minister Danny Nartey (Musician), Emmanuel Kwesi Afranie (Football Coach), Ebenezer Donkor aka Katawere (Actor), Gifty Temeng (Actress) and many others. It’s so sorrowful but such is life. Until we meet again on the judgment day, may their souls rests in perfect peace.
Also, the year under review witnessed one of the hottest lyrical war between the ‘self-acclaimed African Rap god’ (Sarkodie) and the self-acclaimed god mc (M.anifest).
The controversies among these great artiste attracted the attention of music pundits, musicians and music lovers in the country. This lyrical war all started when Sarkodie released a track titled ‘Bossy’ which featured music producer Jay So.
The track ended by Sarkodie making reference to M.anifest’s rap signature.
M.anifest understood Sarkodie’s line in his song as disrespect, as he ended the track with a line attributed to him.
Therefore, M.anifest replied Sarkodie with a diss track titled, ‘god mc’. Immediately after the release of ‘god mc’, Sarkodie also did a counter track titled ‘kanta’ as a direct response to M.anifest.
Right away, the entertainment industry was set ablaze as virtually all the music pundits and lovers reacted to the lyrical war between these artistes and even some started taking sides of their favourite among the two.
The ‘kanta’ track by Sarkodie generated so much controversy that, it nearly attracted a court case.
Simply, Sarkodie’s attempt to reply with a heavy punch line against M.anifest mistakenly demeaned the brand of Ghana Textiles Printing (GTP).
Series of cease fire tracks recorded from the camp of Jay So, Gemini, and E.L later came in to calm down the nerves of the artistes who were on fire by then.
Fast forward, Ghanaians thought the year will end without any lyrical war between artistes after the ‘kanta versus godmc’ until MTV Base Africa released a list of ten (10) hottest emcees in Ghana.
The list included the name of Desmond Blackmore known in showbiz as D Black over the expense of Wanlov Da Kubolor.
Off late, there has been an argument about D Black being a ‘wack’ rapper.
Therefore, Wanlov expressed his dissatisfaction about D Black’s inclusion and even continued to release two diss tracks titled ‘malafaka’ and ‘Ah Well’ against MTV Africa and D Black.
The later also responded with a freestyle diss titled ‘The List’ which set social media ablaze after few minutes of its release.
More importantly, songs from the camp of some artiste got trending throughout the country and even in the various ghettos.
Choices remix by Sarkodie, Mahama Paper by Shatta Wale, Yɛwɔ Krom by Atom, Ekikimi by Wisa Gried and many others were all over the place and in the various media.
It’s worthy to talk about Wisa Greid’s manhood explosion at the Decemba2Rememba concert.
Likewise, because 2016 marked the general elections year, therefore, several showbiz personalities endorsed the two party giants in the country for their personal reasons and gains.
Notable among them are John Dumelo, Mzbel, Bull Dog and many others endorsed NDC. Again, the likes of Daddy Lumba, Agya Koo, A-plus, Lucky Mensah and several others also backed the victorious party called NPP for the December 7 polls in the country.
The year 2016 showbiz in retrospect cannot be left the achievements of some hardworking artistes. A lot of award events were organized to applaud the works of some artiste in the country on merit.
The most prestigious awards show in Ghana in the year under review gave artiste of the year to Elom Adablah, better known by his stage name EL by Vodafone Ghana Music Awards 2016.
This raised eyebrows, because some entertainment pundits and music lovers thought EL doesn’t deserve the artiste of the year award but rather Bisa Kdei deserved it due to his revival of the highlife music in the country.
Nonetheless, the likes of Sarkodie, Shatta Wale, Stonebwoy, Bisa Kdei, Kofi Kinaata and many others have been able to badge some plagues to their credit.
Mzvee was nominated to represent Ghana at 2016 Black Entertainment (BET) Awards, although she couldn’t win.
However, her stunning outfit to the award show became the talk of town as it won the most best dressed act.
Truly, Mzvee’s nomination to BET Awards 2016 came as a shock to EL who thought he should have been nominated instead.
Despite, this clearly shows that our entertainment industry is moving forward gradually.
Now, as we’re about the close the showbiz chapter in the year 2016, a lot of musical shows are being organized by our artiste purposely to entertain their fans and also pocket some money.
The annual Rapperholic concert by Sarkodie, Bar concert by EL, The Bhim concert by StoneBwoy, The Experience of Kojo Antwi Reloaded by Kojo Antwi and many other musical concerts will be headlined by the peoples’ favourite artistes to spice up the Christmas festivities.
Therefore, as we journey into the year 2017, we hope that more glories will be achieved by our artistes in and outside the country.
As people, our failure to recognize the impressive works of these celebrities is the main reason why the illuminati hit singer, Sarkodie released the trending track ‘Trumpet’.
This piece again seeks to congratulate all the hearts and minds that made the showbiz industry wow in the year 2016 under review.
We hope that the trumpet of success will be blown on a high pitch in the year 2017 and beyond.
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