Okyeame Kwame is the richest Vodafone Ghana Music Awards artiste
Okyeame Kwame is smiling all the way to the bank even though Sarkodie
won the Artiste of the Year at the just ended Vodafone Ghana Music
Awards 2012 which was tagged as the highest award by VGMA with the
winner going home with GHC 10, 000.
Sarkodie also won two awards where he bagged GHC 6, 000 from Vodafone
Song of the Year - (Sarkodie - U Go Kill Me) and Best Rapper of the
Year.
World Bank Ghana office yesterday presented Okyeame Kwame for his
award he won at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards for 'Music For
Development' for his Heptistis B project.
Heading the short ceremony was Senior Communications Specialist at World Bank Ghana, Kofi Tsikata.
The MTN foundation also stunned Okyeame Kwame with an amount of GHC 15, 000.
The other nominees, Edem and Bohyeba were also seated.
So in all Okyeame Kwame racked up GHC 24, 000 from the Vodafone
Ghana Music Awards 2012 making him the richest music award winner.
Okyeame Kwame also won Best Collaboration of the Year (Okyeame Kwame
& Bertha – Faithful) and Songwriter of the Year, cashing up GHC
3,000 a piece.
Gathered at the presentation was Obour (MUSIGA president), Ben Brako,
Richie, yours truly Ghana Music.com and some selected media houses.
The World Bank Ghana Office for some years now began an initiative to assist in the improvement of the Ghanaian music industry.
The 'Music for Development Category' was created to acknowledge and
celebrate the good works of our musicians who endeavor to make their
music a blessing to society and their music fans
Mzbel demands apology from Hitz Fm
Hiplife Musician and Actress Nana Akua Amoah aka Mzbel is very
grateful to God Almighty and everybody who supported her during her
trial time in court through to the court judgment.
However, Mzbel is not entirely fulfilled as far as her court issue with the police and how the media handled it is concerned.
Mzbel has, for the first time after the final judgment, poured her
heart out on what really happened and how thing got as far as they did.
In an exclusive with Peacefmonline.com, the “Sixteen Years” singer said,
all her woes were due to a reckless conversation she had with a
particular journalist.
Mzbel said, after staying in Police cells for four days, she and two
others who were accused of assaulting and obstructing a police officer
from executing his duty, were finally granted bail.
She disclosed that even though she was advised not to do any media
interviews until the court hearing was over, she went against all that
and had a phone conversation with Doreen Avio of Hitz FM, which almost
landed her in jail.
According Mzbel, Doreen called her as a friend “She called me as a
friend to sympathize with me and even condemned the behavior of the
police, saying she had a similar experience with the Police. Doreen even
went ahead to share her sad experience with the police before she asked
me what was going on with my case”.
Mzbel admitted that she shared her experience with Doreen and
unknowingly gave her details of her court situation but before she
realized, what she thought was a friendly off-record chat with a female
friend, was being aired on Hitz FM, even though Doreen never told her
she was recording her.
Mzbel told Peacefmonline.com that what made matters even worse was
that, all this happened before her first court hearing and that voice
played on air was used against her in court. She said this became a
whole new issue in court and it also created problems between her and
her lawyers. This, she said prolonged the court hearings and Mzbel
believe it defiantly contributed to the judge’s final judgment.
She has not been able to forgive herself for making such an expensive
mistake and she feels betrayed and deceived by Doreen’s behavior. She
said she has confronted Doreen and the management of Hitz FM, but she
has really not had any tangible response from them. “All I need from
Hitz FM is a public apology on Hitz FM, the same platform on which my
voice was played”.
Mzbel feels the media have not been fair to her even though she has
no problem with any media person. She said even though she is very free
and open to everybody, the media always report on stories about her
without contacting her.
Mzbel Mzbel feels the slightest move she makes spreads like wild
fire, and the press has succeeded in creating a wrong impression about
her, not just in Ghana but internationally because unfortunately most of
the hyped news are geared in the negative direction, adding that there
is a positive side of her which the media have ignored or refused to
see.
“Where was the press when I was honoured with the “Portrait of
Excellence” award for my contribution to women freedom in Ghana”, she
asked.
She emphasized that apart from this, she has won several awards
internationally, sold a lot of records worldwide, done several charity
works, but the media only see Mzbel when she has a problem with people.
She said contrary to people’s perception that she enjoys negative
publicity, she doesn’t. “I don’t enjoy negative publicity at all.
Sometime I cry when I read some stories about me and feel so let down. I
don’t have any problem if they want to report negative stories about me
but my only problem, is they should contact me for my side of the
story”, Mzbel stressed.
The Motor Court in Accra on Tuesday April 10, 2012, convicted Mzbel
and two others for traffic-related offences. Mzbel, known in private
life as Nana Akua Amoah, Maxwell Mensah a businessman, and Emmanuel Edem
Lordzoh, a student, were consequently fined a total of GH¢1,600 or in
default face various terms in prison.
It will be recalled that the three were arrested in June 2011 and put
before court for assaulting and obstructing a police officer from
executing his duties. They had pleaded not guilty to the offences but
changed their pleas when they appeared before the court in Accra on
Tuesday.
