Gospel musician, Joe Mettle’s Artiste of the Year win seems to be creating some confusion as to whether his win was a record setting one.
Joe Mettle at the wee hours of Sunday, April 9 beat E.L, Sarkodie, Stonebwoy, MzVee, and Medikal to claim the bragging rights as Ghana’s topmost artiste.
The ‘Onwanwani’ hit singer, therefore, holds the bragging rights as the best artiste in Ghana for a year and was thought to be the first gospel artiste to attain this.
While Ghanaians, particularly the gospel music fraternity, were celebrating Joe Mettle’s Artiste of the Year win as a first for the genre, Nii Ayite Hammond, PRO of the Ghana Music Awards had said in a Facebook post on Monday that it wasn’t the first.
“Point of correction, Joe Mettle is not the first gospel Artiste to win the Artiste of the year but he is the first gospel Artiste to win the topmost award at the VGMA. Daughters of Glorious Jesus were the first gospel artiste to win the Artiste of the year in 2004,” he said in the post.
Mr Hammond even explained in an earlier interview with Myjoyonline.com that when Daughters of Glorious Jesus won the Artiste of the Year, the most Popular Song of the Year was the topmost award. Therefore, VIP who won the most popular song of the year that year won the topmost award.
He added that the rules were changed in 2008 making the Artiste of the Year the topmost award.
However, beating a retreat the Ghana Music Awards PRO says he got his facts wrong.
He explained to Myjoyonline.com that his checks have indeed shown that VIP won both the Popular Song and Artiste of the Year at the 2004 edition of the awards.
Mr Hammond withdrew his comments and rendered an unqualified apology for misleading the general public.
“I wrote earlier Joe Mettle was not the first gospel Artiste to win the Artiste of the year but that statement is not factually accurate.
“Joe Mettle is actually the first gospel Artiste to win the Artiste of the year in the VGMA not Daughters. Accept my apology,” he said on Facebook.
