According to a leaked 2018 VGMA list, self-acclaimed Dancehall King Shatta Wale is the 2018 Artiste of year.
Shatta Wale faced a stiff competition from the likes of Joe Mettle, Ebony, Sarkodie, and Stonebwoy.
Award-winning Dancehall act Shatta Wale has been on top of his game since 2013.
He is loved and hated with equal measure but the story behind the man famed not only for his glory but his controversy in Ghana music is one of great determination and applied persistence.
He started his young music career with a borrowed name and identity-Doggy- a name he took in reverence of his favourite Dance Hall artiste at the time, Yoggy Doggy.
Then he changed to Bandana- a name that shot him to fame after a single hit track. He died in music, got buried for years, only to resurrect with a new name, Shatta Wale, a new identity and a solid repertoire of back-to-back hits in the last couple of years.
Shatta Wale, known in real life as Charles Nii Armah Mensah Jnr walked listeners through the inspiring story of his career-death-and-resurrection and why he may just be the most misunderstood musician of our time.
Meanwhile, after a long absence from the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA), one would have expected that Shatta Wale's reinstatement into the awards would come with a performance on the night of the main event.
However, the list of artistes performing at the 2018 VGMAs does not include him.
Artistes billed for the awards ceremony are Sarkodie, Joe Mettle, MzVee, Samini, Efya, Praye, Akosua Agyapong, Kwasi Arthur, Kidi, Adina, Kuami Eugene, Fancy Gadam, King Promise and Kelvyn Boy.
Others are Tiwa Savage from Nigeria and Nasty C from South Africa.
When asked why Zylofon Media artistes including Shatta Wale were not billed to perform, Head of Communications for Charter House, organisers of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, George Quaye told Radio Univers’ Zionfelix in an interview that the artistes that have been billed are equally good.
“We have not blacklisted any artiste. We have several big and respectable musicians who are also not on the bill so the Zylofon Media artistes missing on the bill is not intentional on the side of the organisers to sideline them. We made sure all genres are fully represented and Samini on the bill is representing Reggae/dancehall category,†he said.
“There will be many VGMAs in the coming years. Shatta Wale is back to the awards and who knows, he might be the headline artiste for next year’s event. We don’t have any problem as organisers of the event maybe Zylofon Media would have something else to say if you call them,†he added.
However, sources indicate that Charter House did not hire Shatta Wale to perform at the programme because Zylofon Media had charged them Ghc 200,000 as the performance fee.
According to our reliable source, the organisers felt that the fee was too high for a performance on the night of the award scheme.