The board of the Telecel Ghana Music Award (TGMA) clarified why King Paluta’s popular song, Makoma, was excluded from nomination in several categories at the upcoming awards.
In a statement released on April 3, 2025, the Board announced that contrary to public speculation, the decision to exclude Makoma, one of the biggest hits of the year, from certain categories was due to the TGMA rule that bars artists from having more than one song in a category other than the collaboration categories.
The Board claims the rule is to prevent an artist from splitting votes and concentrate all their efforts on pushing one song. They added that their findings identified Aseda as the more popular of King Paluta’s two songs, leaving Makoma out of contention.
In their statement, the board said: “Based on our research, including streaming numbers and airplay from 175 radio stations, Aseda was adjudged the more popular choice in both Highlife and Most Popular Song of the Year categories,”
The clarification comes after intense public debate over the exclusion of Makoma over alleged profanity in its lyrics.
Former Deputy Creative Arts Minister, Mark Okraku Mantey, slammed Makoma for being a profane song and lamented its use on political platforms by the NPP in the run-up to the 2024 elections, leading pundits to speculate it was excluded from the awards for that reason.
King Paluta clarified his lyrics, insisting there was no profanity contained in them. Public pressure mounted on the TGMA to clarify its stance since King Paluta clearly did not use profanity as initially thought.
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