Prior to the 2023 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA), Black Sherif did not shy away from publicly expressing optimism about winning the Album of the Year award with his hit album, ‘The Villian I Never Was’.
According to him, winning that category would bring him so much happiness. Unfortunately, the category was won by King Promise with his ‘5 Star’ album.
Reacting to losing the Album of the Year award at the VGMA, Blacko indicated he was disappointed when the winner was mentioned.
“I was waiting to hear my name. But when it wasn’t mentioned, I went like ‘yawa’,” he said on New Day.
Regardless, Blacko acknowledged the hard work of other nominees in the same category. He explained, “They put in the work, that is why their projects were selected among all albums in the year.”
Blacko’s defeat in the category has been met with mixed reactions. While many fans believe he has been treated unfairly, a board member of VGMA believes King Promise is deserving of the award.
In a one-on-one interview with Kwame Dadzie on Joy FM’s Twitter Space, Nii Ayite Hammond, a VGMA board member explained the dynamics for winning the Album of the Year category have shifted from having the highest number of hit songs to one possessing technical qualities.
He explained, “At a point in time in the music life of the country, we were doing more singles so the albums were kind of suffering. And so people who were coming out with albums and we realized that the definition that we had in the past which was three or more hit songs was becoming a challenge. So, in the wisdom of the Board, we needed to change that definition.”