PRO for Charterhouse, Robert Klah says choosing nominees for the 2022 Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA) Artiste of the Year was a competitive process.

According to him, there was a list of artistes the board felt deserved the nomination, however, out of those names, they could only shortlist six after much deliberation on who deserves to make the list.

Speaking on Daybreak Hitz on Hitz FM, he explained that because of the tough competition, artistes like Kofi Kinaata and Fameye did not make the final list.

“It's not that they didn't work, they worked. What it means is that the space is very competitive and it's just the six that are featured in that particular space. It's a basket of names you'll have with different reasons, arguments to support why they deserve to be in the top six,” Mr Klah said.

His comment comes after some personalities including Abeiku Santana, Black Rasta and others questioned the VGMA nominees list.

Some questioned why Kofi Kinaata and Fameye were not on the Artiste of the Year list while others quizzed why Shatta Wale was not nominated even though Stonebwoy made his comeback into the awards scheme.

Addressing their concerns, Robert Klah explained that Shatta Wale did not show interest in joining the scheme despite the lifting of the ban placed on him and Stonebwoy in 2019.

“The scheme is in such a way that you need to be able to show interest, to be a part of the scheme, once you show interest we will work with you.”

Mr Klah stated that the interest is either in the form of filing for nomination or giving consent to the organisers to have your music nominated.

Meanwhile, Mr Klah has urged aggrieved supporters to understand the scheme cannot nominate every artiste year in year out.

He explained that just like people are voicing out their concerns, the board members also agreed and disagreed on who to make the nominations list.

But, after a long day of deliberations, they could not simply put everyone on the nomination list, he added.