One song per artist is permitted per category, according to the Telecel Ghana Music Awards Board, which explains why King Paluta’s Makoma was left off of this year’s nominations. Research demonstrating that Aseda had higher airplay and streaming numbers served as the basis for the decision.
Concerns regarding King Paluta’s song Makoma’s exclusion from this year’s nominations have been addressed by the Telecel Ghana Music Awards (TGMA) Board.
Robert Klah, Head of Communications and Public Events at Charterhouse, released an official statement in which the board denied allegations that the song’s exclusion was due to its purportedly explicit content. Rather, they blamed an existing nomination rule for the decision.
The Board has stated that
Except for Best International Collaboration, Best Collaboration, and Best Music Video, each artist may only submit one song per category.
The statement went on to elaborate,
“This regulation guarantees that artists have the best chance of winning and avoids vote-splitting. To choose the more well-liked song, we used King Paluta’s Aseda and Makoma as an example. Aseda was judged the more formidable competitor in the Highlife Song and Most Popular Song of the Year categories, according to our analysis, which includes streaming statistics and airplay data from 175 radio stations.”
The Board further explained that although this regulation has been loosened in the past, it is not new. When Bisa Kdei had two successful songs, Mansa and Brother Brother, but only Mansa received nominations in 2016, a similar rule was put into place.
According to the board, Bisa Kdei personally decided to submit Mansa after learning about the one-song-per-category rule, dispelling rumors that Brother Brother was disqualified because of its content. Even though this policy was later disregarded in some years, Makoma was left out of the nominations when it was reinstituted in 2025.
