Charter House, organizers of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA), have stripped Shatta Wale and Stonebwoy off the awards they won at last Saturday’s event.
At a press conference today, a member of the VGMA Board, Amandzeba Nat Brew said the actions of both artistes “brought the scheme into disrepute”. Thus, the duo are to return the plaques presented to them on the night for winning awards in their respective categories. Amandzeba revealed that the decision was as a result of “careful deliberations” and “extensive consultation” with stakeholders in the music industry.
The bedlam which halted the whole event, occurred when Stonebwoy was mentioned as the winner for the Reggae/ Dancehall Artiste of the year for the fifth consecutive time. While on stage receiving his award, Shatta Wale was seen walking onto the stage with his entourage. This act, resulted in a scuffle between followers of Stonebwoy and Shatta Wale, with followers of the former preventing the latter’s entourage from getting onto the stage, during which Stonebwoy, who obviously felt threatened by Wale’s action, was seen pulling a hand gun handed him by one of his “boys”.
The melee temporarily brought proceedings to a halt thus the two topmost awards for the night, “Most Popular Song of the Year” and “Artiste of the Year”, had to be deferred.
Both artistes have invited by the Police for questioning and have duly been charged and arraigned before the courts.
The rumpus created by the two, marred the beauty of the event which was in its 20th year.
Below is the press conference organized by Charter House: