Guest Blog: VGMA Heroes Concert: Kudos To Charterhouse …That Was A Good Show

It was a night meant to celebrate the heroes at the frontline of Ghana and the world’s Covid-19 fight, but we must as well celebrate the heroics of Madam Theresa Ayoade (Charterhouse C.E.O) and her team for an awesome concert they put together last night.

Charterhouse, organizers of the annual Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMAs) had indirectly been thrown a challenge by Mr. Sadiq Abdullai and his 3Music Awards Crew with their near flawless organization of the virtual 3Music Awards 2020 a couple of weeks ago. The pressure since then had been on Charterhouse to respond in equal measure especially when the VGMAs is regarded as Ghana’s biggest music award scheme.

For VGMAs not to be usurped by the “baby” 3Music, industry players and music lovers had for the past weeks been urging them to respond to this challenge, and what a grand style response that was with the virtual “Heroes Concert” last night. If this was a litmus test for a proper virtual VGMAs, then the blue litmus has indeed turned red for them to go ahead and give us a virtual red-lettered VGMAs 2020.

From Chief Moomen’s poetic introduction to Joe Mettle’s performance, one can testify that indeed this was a well thought through event, beautifully crafted and well produced to the satisfaction of the enthused virtual audience watching from the comfort of their homes.

An awesome stage on which stood an amazing live band setup was enough to convince everyone watching that this was not a joke of a virtual concert, and the elegant lighting added a touch of magnificence and splendour to every performer who graced the stage.

To single out one musician for praise may be a disservice to all the super talented musicians who dished to us the entertainment needed to help allay fears and ease tension in these hard times while also celebrating our brave and gallant frontline health workers who are sacrificing their all in this global battle against the novel coronavirus.

Honourable mentions however, to all those musicians who performed with the accompaniment of the live band. The chemistry that existed between some of them and the band, came with some calmness and produced sounds that was soothing to the ear, something that has been missing for some time now in most modern-day music performances, and I can’t help but agree with blogger Kobby Kyei when he tweeted that, “Event organizers should provide more room for our acts to perform live like this”.

Another huge positive was the inclusion of Chief Moomen, the poet who got the whole action off to a flyer as he magically wove words together and delivered that eloquent act of poetry. He strengthened my long-held position that, event organizers should involve other creative people like comedians, poets, writers, etc. to sell their products to the masses. We have such talents in abundance and all they cry for are platforms and opportunities such as these. Need I say more about Naa Ashorkor, the ever-masterful host?

In all, the “Heroes Concert” indeed showed that Charterhouse knows how to deliver a good show even in abnormal times like these and to quote a tweet from celebrated Ghanaian blogger Ameyaw Debrah, “Salute to Charterhouse. I wasn’t disappointed one bit for anticipating this”.

Writer: Qwesi Nabila Zakariah (@qwesi_nabila)