I wanted VGMA to nominate my gospel song in afrobeats category – Scott Evans
Urban gospel musician, Scott Evans is one of the proponents of the agenda to have gospel songs nominated in all genre categories in the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards.
Earlier, Akesse Brempong had in a tweet, wondered why gospel songs were not nominated in the highlife category.
“Mediated by the worship experience in Pentecostal-Charismatic churches, we can observe that an aesthetics of liveness has reentered highlife music through the idiom of gospel (F. Carl 2014). But no gospel song in the HIGH LIFE CATEGORY of VGMA24,” he wrote.
Another gospel musician, Kofi Owusu Preprah also wrote: “There’s so much VALUE that gospel brings to the award schemes. Organizers must seriously consider opening up to gospel across all categories. Gospel is “The Message” and not merely the rhythm. Today GH appreciates gospel in hi-life + all rhythms!”
Speaking on Joy FM’s Twitter Spaces show on Wednesday, May 9, 2023, Scott Evans said he even submitted his song ‘Best Side’, to the VGMA Board to be nominated in the Afrobeats/Afropop song category but it did not earn a nomination.
“Amazingly, when I was filing for the VGMA, I filed for Afrobeat Song of the Year,” he told Kwame Dadzie.
Asked if he was disappointed he didn’t earn a nomination in that category, Scott said “it is one of those things.”
According to him, it is about time the scheme went beyond just nominating gospel songs by just their message but also the rhythm.
In his response the Head of Public Events and Communications at Charterhouse, the organizers of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, Robert Klah said although the issue of nominating gospel songs in the various genre-categories had been raised at the VGMA Board meetings before, they would still make room for further discussions.
Source: Ghana News
