11 Receive First Awards

The tone for this year’s Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) main event was set last Monday when the first batch of awards were given out at the Industry Awards Night held in the foyer of the Accra International Conference Centre.

It was an invite - only dinner programme where mainly industry players, including the nominees in the eleven categories up for grabs, mingled and chatted over food and drinks. Despite the friendly atmosphere, everyone kept guessing which nominees would walk away smiling the broadest till the results, collated by KPMG, were eventually handed in.

The winners were, obviously, excited about coming out tops in their various categories and were graciously congratulated by those who lost out.

Nacy and Appietus shared a table and they hugged when the latter returned to sit with his Producer of the Year trophy.

There were performances by the Patch- Bay Band, Qweci (Ded Buddy), Okyeame Kwame, Kesse, the Shepherds a capella group, George Darko, Diana Hamilton, Blakk Rasta, Guy One, Bernice Ansah and Paulina Oduro.

Everyone walked away from the venue looking forward to the main VGMA night next Saturday, April 14.

The 11 winners at the Industry Awards Night were:
Best Female Vocal Artiste: Efya for I’m In Love With You

Best Male Vocal Artiste: Kesse for Oh Yes
Gospel Album : Gifty Osei for Fefeefe
Music for Development - Okyeame Kwame for Hepatitis

Songwriter of the Year: Okyeame Kwame for Faithful
Producer of the Year: Appietus for Yese Yesee
Instrumentalist of the Year: Steve Bedi (Saxophonist)

Sound Engineer of the Year: Kaywa
Traditional Artiste of the Year : Guy One
MUSIGA Merit Award: Diana Hopeson
Lifetime Achievement Award: Pat Thomas.
Kouame Koulibaly/graphic.com.gh