Ghana Music Awards 2006 Makes History

After a series of sleepless nights and endless consultations for sponsors, Charter House Ghana, the organizers of Ghana Music Awards held on to their promise.

On Saturday 4 March 2006, all roads led to the Accra International Conference Centre for the biggest awards ceremony ever. Ghana Music Awards serves as an alternative to the Grammy awards, which also honours achievements in entertainment and salutes a wide genre of music from traditional to hiplife with nicely shaped trophies.

Broadcast live this year on GTV, the event attracted big names in the music business and media houses all over the world like Channel O, Discovery Channel, Ghana Music.com, Ovation Magazine and MNet.

Honouring several categories in music, voting by the public was conducted via a nationwide poll by newspapers, music websites and on phone (areeba) with the rest done by the selection and planning committee.

The about 2500-seater auditorium was packed to the brim with even some additional chairs brought in. The show kicked off with Kwabena Kwabena being introduced by Kwami Sefa Kayi of Peace FM and Nana Aba Anamoah of TV3. As he emerged on stage after a short introduction by his band, the guys and ladies began screaming and swooning. He punished the ecstatic audience with his hit track ?Asor?.

The next act was Praye (KORA award winners). Dressed in all red suits and accompanied by two white girls and a guy, they climbed upstage to show the audience what time it was. The height of their performance was when they introduced three kid-girls and a kid-boy on stage to do the ?praye? and ?awilo? dance. The entire audience stood up and began the ?praye? dance. Praye turned the auditorium into a dancehall because nobody ever returned to their seats until they left the stage.

Next on stage was Lord Kenya. He started out with a couple of songs from his old albums. This went down well with the audience who have always known what Lord Kenya is made of. Then he ventured into the now hitting track ?Born Again? featuring the hottest singer Ofori Amponsah and rag-life artiste Barosky, which made the crowd go berserk.

It?s a little over quarter-way through the event when the auditorium is suddenly overwhelmed by the screams of the ladies. I turn my attention to the stage, trying to discern what all the commotion is about. I half expect the legend Awilo Longomba or maybe Ofori Amponsah. However, nothing seems out of the ordinary.

Host Kwami Sefa Kayi and co-presenter Nana Aba Anamoah are going backstage. Nothing has happened except?wait, there it is; Wutah is coming on stage in a grand style. Performing songs like ?Adonko?, ?Don?t Change Your Style? and the touching ?Big Dreams?, they had the audience on their feet.

It was now the turn of former GMA champions, VIP. Introducing themselves by dressing on stage, they settled into a series of famous songs that included ?Ahomka Womu? and new songs like ?Mene Me Jolie? and ?My Love?.

Sammy Okposo?s soothing and stimulating songs were able to evoke strong intense emotions. He did far more than just to entertain, as he was able to get the audience into a spiritual mood by inviting Noble Nketsia to help him on stage singing ?Da N?ase? (Thank Him).

The hottest Ugandan trio Blu 3, dressed in all black looking like Destiny?s Child continued from where Sammy had left and in fact, their sterling performance will leave a mark in the hearts of Ghanaians.

The sexy ?don dada? Batman appearing from the back-gate of the auditorium also added his name to the ?A? list of performers doing the slow version of ?Odo?. To recognise last year?s top award winner Obour, he called him upstage to do a duet and later invited Bright of former Buk Bak fame to help them out.

The legendary Awilo Longomba was more than perfect on stage. To say his performance was impressive would be an understatement. He was arguably unstoppable on stage. Closing the event was some minutes performance from the now hottest singer Ofori Amponsah.

Below is a complete list of GMA 2006 Award Winners on Saturday:

Reggae Song of the Year ? ?Big Dreams? by WutahHiplife Song of the Year ? ?Toffee? by CastroGospel Song of the Year ? ?Me Te Ase? by Noble NketsiaContemporary Highlife Song of the Year ? ?Otoolege? by Ofori AmponsahHighlife Song of the Year ? ?Old School? by Lucky MensahHiplife Album of the Year ? ?Toffee? by CastroGospel Album of the Year ? ?My Vision? by Noble NketsiaContemporary Highlife Album of the Year ? ?Otoolege? by Ofori AmponsahBest Collaboration of the Year ? ?Rakia? by Kofi Nti featuring Ofori Amponsah, K.K Fosu and BaroskyHiplife Artiste of the Year ? NkaseiGospel Artiste of the Year ? Josh LaryeaContemporary Highlife Artiste of the Year ? Ofori AmponsahNew Hiplife Artiste of the Year ? PrayeNew Artiste of the Year ? PrayeBest Female Vocal Performance of the Year ? Stella SealBest Male Vocal Performance of the Year ? Kwabena KwabenaAlbum of the Year ? ?Otoolege? by Ofori AmponsahRecord of the Year ? ?Anamontuo? by WutahArtiste of the Year ? Ofori AmponsahMost Popular Song of the Year ? ?Otoolege? by Ofori Amponsah
For some years now, Charter House has taken Ghana by storm with the organisation of spectacular events like bringing international stars such as Shaggy to Ghana, Boys II Men, Kevin Lyttle and Wayne Wonder, holding Miss Malaika Ghana and a Nite of Laughter and Music.

Kudos to Charter House for a job well done. They really gave everyone value for their money. ?Ayekoo?.