Amid concerns over the exclusion of King Paluta’s hit song Makoma from the Popular Song of the Year nominations at the 26th Telecel Ghana Music Awards (TGMA), the event organizers have issued a response.
In an official statement, the TGMA Board clarified that the omission was due to a long-standing rule restricting artists to a single nomination per category, with only a few exceptions.
“The only categories where multiple nominations are allowed are Best Collaboration, Best International Collaboration, and Best Music Video, as these involve multiple contributors,” the statement read.
The Board further explained that when an artist has more than one song eligible for a category that permits only a single entry, the selection is made using key metrics, including streaming numbers and radio airplay.
In King Paluta’s case, both Aseda and Makoma qualified for Popular Song of the Year. However, after evaluating streaming data and airplay statistics from 175 radio stations nationwide, Aseda emerged as the stronger-performing song. As a result, it was nominated in both the Highlife Song of the Year and Most Popular Song of the Year categories.
TGMA also emphasized that this rule helps prevent vote splitting, ensuring an artist’s chances of winning are not weakened by having multiple songs competing in the same category.
While acknowledging that exceptions to this rule had been made in previous years, the Board reiterated that the current policy mandates strict adherence to the one-song-per-category rule.
Prior to this clarification, King Paluta’s management had formally petitioned the Board regarding the song’s omission.
