Gospel musician Joe Mettle has disclosed that he wasn’t aware his management filed for him to be nominated in the artiste of the year category of the 2022 edition of Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA).
He said he only got to know after nominations for the award ceremony were released on Saturday.
The nomination, therefore, came to him as a surprise.
Joe’s revelation comes a day after the VGMA Board was heavily criticised for nominating him in the category.
He is the only gospel act nominated in the category alongside secular acts; King Promise, Kidi, Sarkodie, Kuame Eugene and Black Sherif.
Dancehall artiste Ras Kuuku who is leading a campaign against Joe’s nomination in the category said fellow artiste Fameye rather deserves to be in the category.
“I just want to know what Joe Mettle did this year to merit the nomination in the Artiste of the Year category,” he said on Hitz FM.
“When I saw Joe Mettle in the Artiste of the Year, instead of Fameye, I wondered. Which of Joe Mettle’s songs can match up to Fameye’s ‘Praise’, he added.
Reacting to Ras Kuuku on Tuesday, Joe indicated that he didn’t personally file for the nomination.
According to him, when he first came across Kuuku’s comments about his nomination, he laughed because the nomination also came as a surprise to him.
“There are a lot of things that are happening, but not out there. Regardless, they are there. I saw Ras Kuuku’s comments about my nomination. I laughed when I saw it. He shouldn’t worry.
“People will always have their issues, so if you are always concerned about them, your whole life will be about them,” he told Hitz FM Tuesday.
“I didn’t file for Artiste of the Year nomination. My manager handled that. I think that’s why it came as a surprise to me.
“I think I saw a comment when someone said if the award belongs to me or so. There’s a criteria for which they use to nominate musicians and if the organizers think you fit a certain category, you will be nominated,” he added.
However, it is not only Ras Kuuku who has criticized the organizers of the VGMs . Popular TV/Radio personality, Abeiku Santana has also chastised the organizers for being bias. He accused Charterhouse for leaving out Kofi Kinata and Fameye from the “Artiste of the year” category.
