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, 24^th September 2022.

The event took place between 3pm to 7pm of Saturday the 24^th, 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.