Ever since the Ghanaian music scene began many years ago , a musician from the Ghanaian industry has never won a Grammy.
The Grammy Award, or just Grammy, is an award presented by the Recording Academy to recognize “Outstanding Achievement in the music industry” of the United States. The trophy depicts a gilded gramophone.
The Grammys are the first of the Big Three networks’ major music awards held annually. The least that a Ghanaian artiste has gotten from the world’s most prestigious music award scheme is bagging numerous nominations.
Two years ago, Burna Boy from neighbouring Nigeria won the Grammy award. The Nigerian powerhouse took home the ‘Best Global Music Album at the 2021 GRAMMY Awards Premiere Ceremony with his ‘Twice As Tall’ album.
However, Ghana’s failure to win a single Grammy award has created elephantine controversy within the showbiz fraternity. The question that keeps emanating from the mouths of music lovers is: Why has Ghana not won the Grammy before?
Well, the answer to this question was finally answered by the CEO Harvey Mason Jr. of the award scheme. During an exclusive dinner meeting with Ghanaian artists, Harvey Mason gave the artists the inside scope of how one can win a GRAMMY.
According to the Grammy boss, to win a Grammy, one needs to live in the United States of America and be a part of the GRAMMY Academy.
To the chagrin of the musicians who were present, another significant point he raised was that winning the most prestigious music award is not about the number of streams, getting a record label or sales but quality of the song – the song must be well-produced.
In this light, per the definition from Harvey Mason on how a Ghanaian artist can win a Grammy, hotfmghana.com has identified five Ghanaian artists who per the kind of songs they do can easily win the most prestigious music award.
1.BLACK SHERIF
Black Sherif Mohammed Ismail Sharrif popularly known as Black Sherif is a Ghanaian musician and performer from Konongo. Currently he is the Ghanaian artist who is making huge waves internationally.
Apparently, his team has master-minded a palatial promotional strategy that has really helped him achieve such a feat.He gained mainstream acclaim with his street anthem “Second Sermon” released in July 2021.
Black Sherif, whose music is a blend of Ghanaian Highlife with reggae, hip hop, and other genres, is currently out with his new and first album ‘The Villain I Never Was ‘.
2. JOSEPH MATTHEW(JM)
Though he lives in the UK, Joseph Matthew’s works per what Harvey Mason said can easily win him a Grammy. The UK-based Ghanaian artist has released stunningly produced songs such as ‘Nyame ye’, My Story, Not Alone, The Name and ‘Blessed’.
All his songs were produced live by award-winning sound engineer, Francis Osei.
The Afro gospel in Ghana has finally gained prominence in the music scene, thanks to Joseph Matthew. His type of Christian music expresses everything about the gospel of Christ like any other gospel song, but it has got rap and pop culture added to it.
3. WIYAALA
Noella Wiyaala is an Afro-pop singer-songwriter who sings in her native language Sissala and Waala dialects and English, often combining all three languages within her songs. Wiyaala means “the doer” in the Sissala dialect.
After making her name in reality shows in Accra she established a solo career in 2013 with the hit single “Rock My Body”,she has elevated into becoming the Most Promising Female Artiste in Africa and Revelation of The African Continent.
She won two awards at the 2014 first edition of the All Africa Music Awards, and headlined the 15th London African Music Festival in London. In March 2021.
4.WORLASI
Worlasi stands tall as a Ghanaian rapper, singer, music producer and songwriter with near excellent vocal ability. His versatility enables him to switch from singing to rapping in English, Ewe, Fante, Ga and Pidgin.
His musical career can be traced back to his first breakthrough single, Ay3 Adz3, which saw him rise to fame. Because of his ability in churning out good music, a lecturer at the English department of the University of Ghana, Dr Kwame Opoku-Agyemang lauded him. He termed his music as ‘generation-defining ‘
5. CAMIDOH
Raphael Camidoh Kofi Attachie is a 21-year-old fast-rising Ghanaian Afropop, R&B, and Afrobeats songwriter and musician known by the stage name Camidoh.His song ‘Sugarcane,’ a favourite of many music fans brought him to the limelight which trended in 8 nations on the Spotify ecosystem, including Norway and France.
With lyrics that jump between English and Ewe, he is the shining example of Ghana’s emerging Afropop movement. He entered music in late 2018 with his debut track, ‘For My Lover,’ which featured Darko Vibes.
