Ghanaian gospel artist, Piesie Esther has responded to critics who accused her of trying to use her only song, Way3 Me Yie, to win the Overall Artiste of the Year award at the recently held Vodafone Ghana Music Awards.
Piesie Esther appeared on TV3 New Day on Tuesday and also pointed out that several previous winners of the Artiste of the Year award have used a single song to win the award, including Joe Mettle, Diana Hamilton, Stonebwoy, and Sarkodie.
“It has happened before. My sister, Diana won with the same one song, Joe also same one song, I even heard Sarkodie used the same strategy and even Stonebwoy have all used one song to win Artiste of the Year, ” she noted.
Her song ‘Way3 Me Yie’ had been well-received by fans and has gained widespread popularity across the country in the year under review, which made it a strong contender for the prestigious award.
“So I don’t know why people will say I can’t use one song to win AOTY, it’s not fair,” she said
Piesie Esther who lost out to Black Sherif for the ultimate award acknowledged his hard work and how well deserving he was of the title.
“I know Blacko worked hard and he deserved it that one I don’t have a problem with that but I don’t want people to be saying that you are using just one song and Blacko has an album, that is not it,” she revealed.
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The singer went on to express her thoughts on the lobbying by the Christian fraternity against secular musicians which others have condemned as a divisive strategy for the music industry.
“Oh no, there was no competition between God and Lucifer, the competition rather made the VGMA beautiful, I don’t know if you saw it but it brought tension to the race”
Piesie Esther at the VGMA was hoping to cause an upset and follow in the footsteps of her fellow Gospel Musicians Joe Mettle and Diana Hamilton who won it in 2017 and 2021.
It is however important to note that contrary to her statement, Stonebwoy has never won the Artiste of The Year award despite being nominated five times in different editions.