Noella Wiyaala speaks bitterly about VGMA

Ghanaian music icon Noella Wiyala has voiced out issues surrounding the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) that she as a traditional artiste is very unhappy about.

Speaking to Flex newspaper, the Africa singer disclosed that, most musicians are complaining bitterly about the scheme due to the ‘whom you know’ policy. In her own words she said, “it has become a one sided affair where those you know above always keep you in the game. It’s like your mother being in the kitchen, I mean, you will never go hungry but it shouldn’t be that way.”

She cited that, although she is very popular in Accra than some Accra based artistes, her works aren’t recognized and she gets excuses like; she doesn’t have enough views on YouTube. This she says does not make sense because most views are bought easily by these artistes leaving her hard work unnoticed.

Wiyaala says the treatment given to female artistes by the VGMA Board is uncalled for. She feels rating the men over them is an act which must be condemned for the males are described as the frogs better than the females who are the birds and this according to her makes the award scheme no longer attractive with most musicians losing interest in it.

With these incidences, the singer does not want to be regarded as a Ghanaian artiste any longer looking at how things are managed in the industry. She is quite sad the scheme is no more credible but has asked organizers of the awards to create room for traditional music as that is what tells the story of Africa. “Our kind of music tells the story of African cultures but instead of our music being paid attention to, we rather concentrate on noisy and senseless music which is not helping the music industry and this at times makes me sad as a musician from Ghana” she added.

Noella pleaded with the organizers of the VGMA to rotate the awards night to every region in Ghana which will make other people in the country have a feel of it. This she said will help push radio stations outside Accra to play some songs from Accra, and her kind also getting airplay in Accra so she could be recognized by the board even though not necessarily based in Accra.