Dentaa Amoateng, a consultant to the Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., has encouraged more Ghanaians in the music industry to become members of the Academy.
In an interview on Hitz FM, Dentaa explained that the Grammy Awards are decided by members of the Recording Academy, not by its executives.
According to her, Ghana’s limited representation in the Academy means fewer people familiar with Ghanaian music are part of the voting process, which affects the Ghana’s recognition.
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“The process of the Grammy Awards is that you have to be a member of the Recording Academy to vote. It is not voted by Harvey Mason Jnr. It is voted by producers, musicians; people in that industry. So you have to be part of that. And it is in America. So people that are voting, they don’t know your music. So more of us (Ghanaians) have to join the membership to be able to vote,” she said.
She added that joining the Recording Academy is simple and open to qualified music professionals.
“it’s easy. It’s on the website. It’s a very easy process. You actually need two references, someone to verify that you are who you are: one that is already a member of the Academy and one that is not, so they can recommend that you are a producer, you are a musician,” she explained.
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Addressing concerns about non-Africans being nominated in the African Music Performance category, Dentaa said the best way to handle that issue is for more Africans to join the Academy and participate in the voting process.
“That is why we need Africans to be able to vote. If you are on the Board, you have voting rights. There are meetings that they go through the process, so if there are more of us on that platform, then you won’t get non-Africans infusing in that category too much. So I think it is really important,” she added.
Dentaa disclosed that she plans to lead a campaign to encourage more Ghanaians to become Recording Academy members.
The Academy currently has over 16,000 members, including more than 13,000 voting members who are involved in music creation, production, and performance. These include recording artistes, songwriters, producers, engineers, instrumentalists, and arrangers.
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