By: Issac Asare
The 3rd Edition of the Ghana Urban Gospel Music Awards, GUGMA, has been held at an event which saw the fast rising and multiple award winning Gospel sensation, KobbySalm sweeping 5 awards.
At the Star-studded event held at the GH Media School Auditorium in Accra, KobbySalm who is steadily making his way to stardom proved his dynamic vocal prowess by outwitting other talented acts to emerge as the Urban Gospel Artiste of the year.
The coveted award was earned from his ITMOC debut album “In the Midst of Comfort” which has the much talked about hit songs Gye Yen So, Aseda and ‘Jejeli among a host of other singles including ‘Obiara Nse Wo’ and ‘God dey.
By close of nomination in September, 2021, KobbySalm by merit, his maiden album received 5 awards out of 10 nominations in over 24 categories.
The album received recognition as the Album of the year, Record of the Year and the Event Act of the Year. It was however not surprising that the award for the Most Popular Song of the Year also came from this maiden album. KobbySalm’s Manager, Kingsford Sagoe, otherwise known in the music circles as Pascal, was also honoured as Manager of the Year.
Some of the awardees include Jayana who was named Contemporary Artiste of the Year and L.O given the Discovery of the Year award. Blogger of the Year went to Glover of Glover’s Hub, while the Collaboration of the Year went to Kelvyn PY and PO Godson. Music Video of the Year also went to Scott Evans with Afro Pop Song of the Year going to Edem Evangelist. Kelvyn PY and Rose Adjei both received the Male and Female Vocalists of the Year Award respectively.
DJ Paloma of Zylofon FM was named the DJ of the Year, whilst Empress Gifty, who represented as a guest of honour, bagged both Contemporary and Indigenous songs of the Year award. Jochurch and Wuddah were moreover adjudged Rap Artiste of the Year and Afro Pop Song of the Year respectively.
Ezra the Scribe emerged the Spoken Word Act of the Year. These and other awardees were given plaques for their invaluable contribution to the Ghana Music Industry and the Gospel music genre as a whole.
Some individuals were honoured with citations for their roles in pushing Urban Gospel Music amidst the challenges.
Speaking to GBC News on the side-lines of the event, CEO of the Ghana Urban Gospel Music Awards, Richard Higher Pongo said although this year’s event which sought to award excellence and creativity in the Urban Gospel Music Industry had some downs, the program was successful, and also reflected an improvement on previous events.
He disclosed that the idea of honouring talents in the gospel arena was mooted in 2015, but actualized in 2019 when it recorded its first edition. The overarching goal, he noted, was to celebrate and honour Urban Gospel Artistes for their tireless efforts in bringing the new wave to the limelight.
“Such events give recognition to renowned and upcoming Gospel Artistes who are bent on propagating the word of God using rap music and to the draw people’s attention to Gospel rap music (Urban Gospel), which is growing wave quite different from the traditional or orthodox music genre which has existed for years’’ he stated.
According to him, the prospect of the Urban Gospel looks promising and poised to overtake the usual gospel genre. He said Urban Gospel Artiste are just not rappers, but born again thong speaking Christians that have taken evangelism to a new level.
He predicted that in the next 5 years, Urban Gospel was going to gain much recognition and be warmly embraced by most music lovers. Mr Pongo further professed that Urban Gospel will in no time reach its peak and receive massive airplay with Artistes bagging prestigious awards in Ghana and beyond.
This year’s Ghana Urban Gospel Music Awards, was spiced with electrifying performances from Jochurch, K. Anane, PO Godson and KobbySalm. These are talents of God’s kingdom who are channelling their energies through rap music to draw people closer to God.
Present to grace the occasion were Apostle Emmanuel Inkoom, General Overseer of the Kings Palace Chapel International, Jay Smoke, the man behind the popular OneMic Gospel Show, and one of Ghana’s popular Actresses, Irene Opare among a host of other dignitaries in the Gospel music fraternity.
