Gospel artiste Diana Hamilton was in the early hours of Sunday, June 27, crowned Artiste of the Year at the 22nd edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMA).
She beat off strong contenders such as KiDi, Kuami Eugene, Adina, Medikal and Sarkodie, to become the second Gospel artiste to win the topmost award at the VGMA after Joe Mettle triumphed in 2017.
Diana Hamilton also became the second woman to win the Artiste of the Year after Ebony and the first female Gospel artiste to do so
In the days leading to the event, there was a massive campaign especially on social media by her fans and colleague Gospel musicians for her to win and the campaign was obviously successful.
It was a great night for Diana as she picked up three other awards on the night; Vodafone Most Popular Song of the Year, Gospel Artiste of the Year and Gospel Song of the Year.
She expressed her gratitude to her family, her fans, her management and everyone who had supported her.
Diana Hamilton’s toughest competitor in the Artiste of the Year category was Afrobeats artiste KiDi, whose exploits in the year under review saw him being heavily tipped to win.
KiDi
The young man, whose current album Golden Boy is making waves, took home four awards; EP of the Year, Afrobeats/Afropop Artiste of the Year, Afrobeats/Afropop Song of the Year and Highlife Song of the Year.
Other winners were Kuami Eugene who won Highlife Artiste of the Year; Adina who also had an amazing night winning Album of the Year, Record of the Year and Reggae/Dancehall Song of the Year; Medikal won Best Hiphop/Hiplife Artiste of the Year, Eno Barony won Rapper of the Year with Mr Drew taking home New Artiste of the Year.
Adina
Sarkodie and Kuami Eugene’s Happy Day won Best Collaboration of the Year, while Kwesi Arthur won Best International Collaboration for his song Baajo with Nigeria’s Joeboy and Kofi Kinaata was given the Vodafone Green award for his campaign against illegal fishing.
Epixode won the much coveted Reggae/Dancehall Artiste of the Year, Keche’s No Dulling won Hiplife Song of the Year and Kumerica’s Yaw Tog won Hip Hop Song of the Year with Sore.
