Unlike similar events in other african countries –Nigeria, South Africa and Kenya- where an honest effort goes into adding real substance to the content of the event; Charterhouse has consistently manipulated the media to create a charade of "quality event," with stage managed PR antics, when in reality , each year presents no real difference or improvement in content.

Industry pundits {not on Charterhouse's payroll are fast beginning to declare that Charterhouse is indeed running out of fresh ideas}. The Ghanaian public however deserves a better event,especially if ticket prices are going to continue rising.

The Ghana Music Awards is the only industry awards scheme that Ghana can boast off, and if it is  increasingly becoming synonymous with poor event management, then industry stakeholders should be looking for ways to improve it.

The Rising Ticket Price

Tickets to the Ghana Music Awards this year sold for Ghc70 regualar and Ghc150 for V.I.P, and only sold for two weeks, before Charterhouse initiated the annual "artificial shortage" which predictably led to an outrageous demand for these tickets that had supposedly sold out! As at Saturday afternoon[before the event} tickets were now selling for GHC120 regualar at the Charterhouse office.

Ahead of the event ,Tony Pun Danning, manager of the multi-nominated Samini also added his voice to the seemingly increasing complains, - "the price is too high considering that core fans of our artistes may not be able to afford the show" - meanwhile after making the large earnings from the show, organisers, Charterhouse,  do little else to improve the industry.

The figures are outrageously high, meanwhile musicians whom the show was made for are not paid enough.  Information picked up by this journalist from the corridors of the Charterhouse showed that  the artiste contracts are not even  presented to them on time and the terms and conditions of the contracts are not made clear enough for their performances. Some have also complained that the take-home award plaques are unbelievably  cheap for the hype and money supposedly invested in the event.

Here is the catch however; Charterhouse claims they have never really made a profit from the GMAs!

The Ghana Music Awards is a big brand, and one would expect that after twelve years of existence, organizers wouldnt be lamenting over profits from the show.

It is also undisputed that only the Ghana Music Awards has over the past 11 yrs  received a ‘standing order’ of an undisclosed sponsorship package from MTN-Ghana and other cooperate institutions.

Never mind that, this year they claim sponsorship money was cut down due to the "bad economy."

The  hype and the tricks

l have noticed that Charterhouse deliberately holds the event attendants at the entrance to the venue for more than 2 hrs in an attempt create an impression that venue is over-filled.

Authorities have also allowed Charterhouse to sell a number of tickets well beyond the capacity of the DOME; thus people end up having to make do with sitting on the floor to enjoy a show they may have paid GHC120 for!

Poor Event Planning

In Events Management ,there are many components that the main day of the event lacked such as audience management, crowd management ,and an ushering system, among others –this was manifested clearly in this year’s edition; there was an incident at the backdoor where a security officer pulled a gun at the guards manning the gate for obstructing him from performing to his duty. What ensued was a fight that ended with both on the ground and caused serious panic an resulted in many people running away from the scene . 

Access control, admission control, contact list for the event were obviously missing; Chief Dele Momolu, Stella Damascus and Samini, were restricted at the walkway and almost harassed by a security guard from Togo who obviously had no idea who they were. They were supposedly, 'Specially invited Guests" for the show!

Cheap Plaques?

I heard the Media Relation Officer on a local station saying the awards plaques were made in UK;  one has to wonder if this is true, especially considering the incessant complains of past winners,that, the plaques are obviously cheap and sub-standard.This year's plaque certainly didnt look different from previous years'.

Some Artiste Managers have openly complained about the quality of the plaque; and this has led me to wonder if Charterhouse isnt lying to us again!

Tony Pun, Samini's manager, is the latest to complain about the quality of the plaque, "Just last October at the launch of Samini's C.E.O album, we had to glue two of the Ghana Music Awards plaques to enable us display them; meanwhile plaques of all the other international awards Samini had won were still strong", he concluded.

If so, then, again I have to ask,"Who is making all the money?"