Gospel songstress Cecilia Marfo was in far away Italy when the nominees list for the 2011 MTN Ghana Music Awards (GMA) was officially announced at the Golden Tulip Hotel in Accra last Friday.
Reports indicate that she jumped with joy when it was relayed to her that she had soared above all other artistes with eight nominations for her songs Afunumu Ba in the Artiste of the Year, Most Popular Song of the Year, Gospel Song of the Year and Gospel Artiste of the Year categories.
The others are Album of the Year (Faithfulness), Best Female Vocal Performance, Best Collaboration and Best Songwriter for Pastor Boamah who wrote Afunumu Ba.
What her fans, other ardent gospel music lovers and all others who like to see surprises at such events, however, wish is that she is eventually adjudged Artiste of the Year to enable her jump with much more vigour on April 9 when the awards ceremony comes off in Accra.
No gospel artiste has won the topmost award at the GMA since it started 12 years ago. If Cecilia wins, it would also be the first time that the honour goes to a female artiste. In case the honour eludes Cecilia, another gospel act, No Tribe is also in contention to beat Samini, Castro, Kwabena Kwabena or VIP for the prize.
No Tribe’s leader and recording engineer, Nacy, says it looks very likely that a gospel act will grab the top award this year. Nacy recorded Cecilia’s Faithfulness album and No Tribe has backed the songstress at some live shows.
“This is the year for the Lord; this is our time. Gospel musicians did very well in the period under consideration and I know it is time now for somebody from that genre to win in the most cherished category. I strongly believe that if Cecilia does not get it, No Tribe will get it”.
The closest contenders to Cecilia Marfo on the GMA nominations list are four strong names in secular music – Kwabena Kwabena, VIP, Castro and Eazzy – each of whom has five nominations.
Kwabena Kwabena is gunning for Artiste of the Year, Highlife Artiste of the Year, Record of the Year, Best Male Vocal Performance and Highlife Song of the Year with Dadee Anoma while VIP’s nominations are for Artistes of the Year, Hiplife/Hiphop Artistes of the Year, Album of the Year, Most Popular Song and Hiplife Song of the Year with Away.
Castro, whose African Girls song featuring football star Asamoah Gyan, places him in contention for Artiste of the Year, Most Popular Song, Hiplife/Hiphop Artiste of the Year and Best Collaboration.
Then comes Eazzy also with five nominations. Her Wengeze is up for Afro Pop Song of the Year, Most Popular Song, Discovery of the Year, Hip Hop Song of the Year and Hip Hop Artiste of the Year.
No Tribe and Samini do well on the list with four nominations each and Nana Borro comes up with three nominations for his song Aha Ye De in the categories of Most Popular Song, Hiplife Song of the Year and Discovery of the Year.
So does Trigmatic with My Life in three categories. As happens every year in the GMA nominations, the two turfs on which the battle for awards is to be most ferociously fought are the Most Popular Song and Artiste of the Year categories.
Voters will have to think hard over all the performances they have watched and make the decision over who is Artiste of the Year among No Tribe, Cecilia Marfo, Samini, Castro, VIP and Kwabena Kwabena. For the Most Popular Song of the Year, voters will also have to “listen good” to determine whether it is Kiss Your Hand (R2Bees ft. Wande Coal), African Girls (Castro ft. Asamoah Gyan), Away (VIP), Afunumu Ba (Cecilia Marfo), Wengeze (Eazzy), Bohye (No Tribe) or Aha Ye De (Nana Borro)that picks the award.
The next few weeks are going to be exciting as the voting and other preparations warm up towards the awards day.
Source: Graphic Showbiz
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