This year’s edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards comes off in about two weeks and without any doubt, most showbiz lovers are getting prepared for the biggest entertainment event in the country but of great concern to me is the fact that this year’s event seems not to have generated so much interest among entertainment lovers as compared to previous ones.
Apart from the VGMAs Diaries on Pluzz89.9fm’s AM PLUZZ hosted by Sammy Flex, it seems the VGMAs is not really discussed on other platforms. It’s not so clear what the reasons are but I won’t be surprised if days to the event, the interest in the awards would be re-awakened.
No matter what the case may be, I am sure this year’s event would be successful and certainly there would be so much to cheer and talk about .
Celebrations with Ebenezer Narh Affum takes a look at a group of young men who are promoting Urban Gospel and have even been nominated in the VGMAs. Urban Gospel has suffered a lot of rejections since it sprung up earlier in Ghana.
The genre was tagged “an unpleasant kind of music to be accepted by the church”. In other words, people likened and limited urban gospel to secular music because they simply feel rap music is worldly.
Celebrations with Ebenezer Narh Affum celebrates Preachers; three young men who have dedicated themselves to Urban Gospel music and have been very effective at that.
In the year 2009, God placed an undying passion in the hearts of three young men namely Obed Awelinga-Nzuh (Obed Pysch), Edmund Baidoo (Eddy) and Emmanuel Awuni (Emani Beats) to the world through music and since then, Preachers have been doing great exploits by the power of God.
As pioneers of the genre in the country, the beginning years of their ministry were daunting and challenging.
The nay sayings and ill comments were enough to make them give up. Yet, the sour rejections couldn’t quench their zeal neither could the whirlwind sway them off.
In spite of all the difficulty, Preachers as a group has been able to survive and their Music and ministry have grown from strength to strength winning many local and international awards and most importantly, impacting people’s lives especially the youth.
Preachers recently launched its Bibles Up International Tour which had Kenya being their first stop.
They have ministered on one of Kenya’s biggest platforms (Totally Sold Out Concert) and hosted a music summit at the Nairobi Cinema dubbed “Ghana Meets Kenya Music Summit.
The trio, in their pursuit to change the face of gospel rap music in Ghana, also raise a generation of young people who will serve God with their musical talents in the urban gospel genre.
They preach the gospel to the unsaved and embark annually on an evangelism project dubbed “The Bibles Up School Tour” which entails visiting various senior High Schools and University campuses to minister to the students in songs and engage them in activities such as singing, rapping and dancing.
After several visitations to over 50 schools, the aim of the school tour which is to inspire, educate and entertain students to grow in the knowledge of God through entertainment is on course.
Preachers tap their main inspiration from the scriptures where Jesus Christ admonishes all His followers in Mark 16:15 to “go all out into the world and preach the gospel to every creature”.
This reflects in their composure of music which is based on the fundamentals of Christianity like Faith, Hope, Patience, Thanksgiving, Praise and Worship, Evangelism etc…
They have worked with some of the industry’s best players locally and internationally like Lyrical Soldier (UK), Zadok (USA), Noble Nketsiah, Ms Heat (USA) just to mention a few. They have two albums to their credit namely Mark 16:15 and The Fearless Project.
Both Albums are available on iTunes, Amazon, CD Baby and many digital distribution stores across the world. Preacher’s debut album Mark 16:15 has hit songs such as Go Hard, E Dey Love Me and My Days.
The Fearless Project released in 2014 also has hits such as Crazy, No Juju and Meyi W’aye. The singles Glory featuring Veyeera and One by One were released in 2015 and in this year Folo Folo and Why Dem Shaa Like That have so far been released.
Music videos such as Crazy, My Days, Go Hard, E Dey Love Me and Meyi W’aye all from Preachers can be found on their youtube channel named Preachersgh (https://www.youtube.com/user/Preachersgh) As part of this year’s Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, Preachers has been nominated in the Gospel Artiste of the year Category alongside Obaapa Christy, Nicholas Omane Acheampong, Joe Mettle, SP Kofi Sarpong and Patience Nyarko. And for the Best Group of the Year, Preachers comes face-to –face against VVIP, R2Bees, Keche and Galaxy.
In the Best Music Video of the Year category, Preacher’s Crazy For God comes up against E.L’s Shelele, Obrafour’s Nkontompo, Yaa Yaa’s Dumb Drum, Edem’s Girlfriend and Teephlow’s The Warning.
In 2015, Preachers had the opportunity to be part of the MTN 4syte Music Video Awards and received a nomination in the Best Gospel Music Video category.
In the same year for Gospel Music Awards (Italy), Preachers won the award for Best International Group, Best International Music Video and had a nomination in the Best International Hip Hop Song category.
For the Jamming Jesus Festival & Honours, they had nominations in the Most Influential Artist and Collaboration of the Year categories and won the awards for Album of the Year, Most popular Song of the Year and Music Video of the Year.
In the 2014 edition of the Africa Gospel Music Awards, Preachers got nominated in the Best Music Video category and for the Christian Community Music Awards; Preachers got nominated in the Most Wanted Rap Song category.
Preachers also got nominated in the Best Group of the Year category of the Prosperity-UK Awards. At the 2013 Africa Gospel Music Awards, Preachers got nomination in the Group of the Year and Video of the Year categories and won the award for Afro Pop Artiste of the Year.
In the same year, Preachers also got nominated in the International Gospel Artist(s) of the Year category of the BEFFTA AWARDS (UK) and won the award for Most Wanted Rap Song at the Christian Community Music Awards. At the 2012 Ghana Gospel Music Awards, Preachers won the Discovery of the Year award.
