Upper West Music Awards 2023

UMA-2023-CATEGORY-DEFINITIONS-1

2023 Edition of Upper West Music Awards successfully launched at the Wa ISTC

The 2023 edition of the Upper West Music Awards, now Happy Man Bitters Upper West Music Awards has been officially launched at the Wa In Service Training Center on Saturday, 24th September 2022.

The event took place between 3pm to 7pm of Saturday the 24th, after long months and weeks of waiting and anticipation. It saw in attendance many great personalities in the entertainment fraternity including musicians and their management teams, media personnel, sponsors and other supporters from both the region and outside who all made it there through the rain and unfavorable weather conditions.

The audience were welcomed by the accommodative voice of Mr. Abu Issah, popularly known as Nell Gee who happened to be the MC. After a brief introduction and welcoming of guest, the program kick started with an educative message from Mr. Ibrahim Muniru, the manager of Radio Mak, who was introduced as the chairman of the event.

In his speech, the ex-Radio Progress Programs Manager highlighted very important points including the introduction of seven new categories into the scheme. He stated categorically that the award scheme does not just seek to award deserving artists but to promote the image of Upper West as a whole. He recounted his experience as the past chairman of some award scheme and encouraged all artists to see Upper West Music Awards as their very own and to refrain from actions that may dent its image or bring any form of disrepute. Mr. IB went further to reveal some of the activities of this year’s scheme under the theme “Branding and Rebranding” which included a seminar, nominees jams, awards night and nominees dinner. To the interest of many, he revealed that the jams will be held the Royal Cosy Hills hotel, popularly known as Jirapa Dubai.

Mr. Aziz Sungumo, the representative from the Regional Secretariat of MUSIGA followed up with a speech which highlighted the roles of MUSIGA in the region and ended with a piece of advice to all musicians to take advantage of the opportunities and platform the scheme will provide for their growth.

Other members of the organizing team, including Mr. Abdul Ganiu, popularly known as Fashion King, Mr. Mumuni Haruna (Stone) and Mr. Nuhu (Echosoundz) took turns in explaining the various category definitions, reading out and explaining the terms and conditions of the scheme and detailing why the scheme should be accepted as generally encompassing for the best interest musicians in and from the region.

The launch was spiced up by spectacular musical performances from Sambwoy and Di-Yungsta, the winners of Artist of the Year and New artist of the Year respectively from the previous edition. The questions and answers segment of the launch which was highly participative saw questions of all sorts from various personalities but all were duly responded to by the organizers. Very strong opinions and suggestions were put forward by several others which were as well accepted for reflections and possible considerations by the organizers.

The launch suddenly came to an end with a message from the representatives of the headline sponsor, Happy Man Bitters. They encouraged the musicians to continue to produce quality content worth awarding. They also pledged their continuous support to the scheme and the region as a whole under the condition that peace and unity continues to prevail in the industry.

Positive testimonies from previous winners as Upper West Music Awards launches 2023 edition

The winners of the last edition of Upper West Music Awards, specifically, the Artist of the Year and New Artist of the Year has shared positive testimonies of the awards scheme regarding the fulfilment of all promises that were made by the scheme to whoever that wins those categories.

During the launch which took place on Saturday, 24th September, 2022 at the Wa In Service Training Center, Sambwoy, the ultimate winner of the Artist of the Year category showed so much gratitude to the organizers of the scheme during his 5-minute performance. He thanked the scheme for fulfilling all the promises they made to him including a promotional deal, a collaboration with a nation-wide renown artist and a total sum of Five Thousand Ghana Cedis (5,000gh) after he won the award.

He backed this statement up with a short performance of the unreleased collaboration with Quata Budukusu. The song received massive response from the audience though it was the first-time public play.

Di-Yungsta, the winner of the New Artist of the year who was also promised a sum of One Thousand Ghana Cedis (1,000gh) cash, a promotional deal and a collaboration with the winner of the Northern Artist of the Year followed up immediately after Sambwoy to also share his story. He stated emphatically that all deals were fulfilled and he also concluded with a brief performance of the said collaboration with Soorebia from the Upper east Region, who emerged as the winner of Northern Act of the Year.

The 2023 edition of the Upper West Music awards, now Happy Man Bitters Upper West Music Awards has been duly launched during the late hours of Saturday the 24th of September, 2022 at the Wa In- Service Training Center. With the rains and bad weather conditions, the event which was chaired by Mr. Ibrahim Muniru of Radio Mak received massive attendance by musicians, management teams, groups and associations, the media, invited guests, sponsors and many others.

The headline sponsor, Happy Man Bitters also sent in a two-member representative board who encouraged the musicians to continue to produce quality content worth awarding. They also pledged their continuous support to the scheme and the region as a whole under the condition that peace and unity continues to prevail in the industry.

Upper West Music Awards reveals seven new categories as they launch the 2023 edition

The organizers of Upper West Music Awards, now Happy Man Bitters Upper West Music Awards has revealed seven new categories which have been added up to the twenty-three (23) in their maiden edition.

Last year’s edition of the scheme which was held in January 2022 had the twenty-three (23) major categories together with other honorary awards that were presented to deserving individuals and groups.

Seven new categories have however been added up to be part of this year’s edition under the theme “branding and rebranding”. This was declared during the launch at the Wa In Service Training Center on Saturday, 24th September, 2022. Below is the list of the added-up categories.

Instrumentalist of the year
Female Vocalist of the year
Gospel artiste of the year
Traditional artiste of year
Blogger of the year
Spoken word artiste of the year
Record of the year

Other added up issues include but not limited to

Some categories shall be given more than a single plaque. These include
Collaboration of the year, with a plaque to each artist of the song.
Video of the year, with a plaque to the artist and another to the video director.
There shall be a nominees seminar which shall bring up various topics to be discussed, intended to brighten up some aspects of artism for the development of the musicians.
The nominees jams shall be held at the Royal Cosy Hills which is popularly known as Jirapa Dubai.

Nominations for this year’s edition has just been opened up for filing and the year under review will be from 1st October, 2021 to 30th September, 2022. All projects released within this period shall qualify to be applied with.

We will continue to Sponsor Upper West Music Awards if there is Peace and Unity – Happy Man Bitters Declares.

Happy Man Bitters has pledged their continual sponsorship to Upper West Music Awards, now Happy Man Bitters Upper West Music Awards on the condition that there continues to exist a environment of peace and unity.

On Saturday 24th September 2022, the two-member delegation drove down to regional capital of the Upper West honor the launch of the Upper West Region. On behalf of the headline sponsor, the representatives delivered a speech on which they expressed their desire to continually support the scheme. They praised the organizing team for their good works and admonished all artists to work hard to produce content that is worth awarding and to work together to make the awards scheme bigger and better.

In their speech, the team pledged to continue supporting Upper West Music Awards under the condition that peace and unity continues to exist in the region on matters of entertainment.

The support of Happy Man bitters, especially the fact that they have agreed to be the headline sponsor of the awards came as good news and a sign of growth to many as awards and entertainment related activities in the region rarely attract investors, especially from outside the region.

The awards scheme has officially launched the 2023 edition which will award thirty major categories and other honorary awards to several other deserving personalities under the theme “Branding and Rebranding.” The year under review starts from 1st October 2021 to 30th September 2022.