I believe my work spoke for itself — King Promise on TGMAs Artiste of the Year win

Ghanaian highlife and Afrobeats singer-songwriter Gregory Bortey Newman, known by his stage name King Promise, has attributed his Telecel Ghana Music Awards (TGMA) Artiste of the Year win to the quality of his music.

He won the topmost award ahead of artistes such as King Paluta and Stonebwoy, despite losing to the latter in the 2024 edition after being considered a strong favourite.

Speaking on Accra-based TV3 on Monday, May 12, King Promise said every song on his ‘True to Self’ album was crafted to be a hit, as he aimed to produce an album with no skippable tracks—a goal he admitted was challenging but fulfilling.

“I believe my work spoke for itself. In the year under review, my album that I dropped has done amazingly well. I told myself, on this project, every song has to stand on its own.

“It was a challenge I gave myself—to make an album where you don’t want to skip a song. And God being so good, one album, several hits—from Terminator to Paris to Favourite Story to Continental and others. For me, it’s an achievement I didn’t compromise on,” he said.

King Promise also revealed that enhancing his local visibility through increased public relations efforts, particularly with the help of Tilly Akua Nipaa, played a key role in cementing the win.

“So what we did this year was beef up our local presence using PR. I’ve had PR in the UK and America for a while, but I’m from here—I live in Accra. So I used to think, why do I need PR in Accra when I go to the interviews myself? But times have changed,” he explained.

“Also, I was on tour and wasn’t even around when everything started. Then the name Tilly came up, and I was like, why not? It sounded good,” he added.