The Board of the Telecel Ghana Music Awards (TGMA) has clarified why King Paluta’s Makoma was not nominated for either Highlife Song of the Year or Most Popular Song of the Year in this year’s awards.
In a press release dated April 3, 2025, and signed by Robert Klah, Head of Communications and Public Events at Charterhouse, the Board dismissed claims that the song was disqualified due to alleged profanity.
According to the organisers, “Each artiste can have only one song per category, except for Best Collaboration, Best International Collaboration, and Best Music Video.”
The Board explained that this rule helps prevent vote-splitting and gives artists a stronger chance of winning.
“Using King Paluta’s Aseda and Makoma as an example, we applied this rule to select the more popular song. Based on our research, including streaming numbers and airplay from 175 radio stations, Aseda was adjudged the more popular choice in both the Highlife and Most Popular Song of the Year categories,” the statement said.
Although the Board has relaxed this rule in past editions of the awards, its current stance is to allow only one nomination per artiste per category.
This is not the first time the ‘one-artiste-one-song-in-a-category’ rule has been applied. In 2016, the same principle affected Bisa Kdei, who had two hit songs—Mansa and Brother Brother—but only Mansa received a nomination.
The TGMA Board reaffirmed its commitment to fairness in the selection process.
“We also reiterate our dedication to educating stakeholders, leveraging the error and omission window as a valuable learning tool,” the statement added.
