Northern Music Awards Suffer Setback

The annual Northern Music Awards is likely to suffer major setbacks in future if producers are not transparent in their transactions with stakeholders.

The organisers of the awards have alleged that some producers in the north are unwilling to disclose sales of the works of the artistes.

The sales is needed to get accurate information about the performance of artistes on the music market over the years.

This year’s awards which is the second in the series will be held on November 25, 2005, at the Picorna Gardens in Tamale.

At a stakeholders meeting in Tamale, organisers of the awards also contended that the lack of sponsorship for artistes in the region had adversely affected their performance on the national and international music scene.

The event manager of Odeneho Promotions, organisers of the music awards, Mr Adam Abdul Basit, said although 70 nominations for the awards had been received, getting sponsorship for the programme and artistes to perform had been slow.

“If care is not taken, we would lose the essence of organising such programmes,” Mr Basit said.

The categories of the awards included Artiste of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year, Songwriter of the Year, Traditional Artiste of the Year, The others are Reggae Song of the Year and Reggae Artiste of the Year.

The Northern Music Awards was mooted by Mr Basit, a radio presenter and marketing officer at Justice FM in Tamale in August last year.

It was aimed, among other objectives, at making artistes in the three northern regions to compete effectively with their counterparts in the south, identify music talents and exposing them to the outside world.

He noted that apart from helping to market local musicians, the programme also boosts night life in the Tamale metropolis.

The first edition of the awards was held in Tamale in September last year, during which 20 artistes were honoured.

Stakeholders in the music industry including producers and recording studios were also honoured.

According to Mr Basit, last year’s event was well patronised by residents of Tamale and expressed the hope that this year’s will attract more people.