TGMA breaks silence on why King Paluta’s 'Makoma' was snubbed

The Telecel Ghana Music Awards (TGMA) Board has responded to concerns over the omission of King Paluta’s song Makoma from this year’s nominations.

In an official statement issued by Robert Klah, Head of Communications and Public Events at Charterhouse, the Board dismissed claims that the song’s alleged explicit content was the reason for its exclusion. Instead, they attributed the decision to an existing nomination rule.

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According to the Board,

each artiste can have only one song per category, except for Best Collaboration, Best International Collaboration, and Best Music Video.

The statement further explained,

This rule prevents vote-splitting and ensures that artistes have the best possible 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, which includes streaming figures and airplay data from 175 radio stations, Aseda was deemed the stronger contender in both the Highlife Song and Most Popular Song of the Year categories.

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The Board also clarified that this rule is not new, though it has been relaxed in previous years. A similar policy was enforced in 2016 when Bisa Kdei had two hit songs, Mansa and Brother Brother, yet only Mansa was nominated.

The day the day of the day th day of the day thhh

Dispelling rumours that Brother Brother was disqualified due to its content, the Board stated that Bisa Kdei personally chose to submit Mansa after being informed of the one-song-per-category rule. Although this policy was later overlooked in certain years, its reimplementation in 2025 resulted in the exclusion of Makoma from the nominations.