Lady Dentaa Amoateng, consultant to Grammy Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., has urged more Ghanaians to join the Academy to boost the nation’s chances of winning at the world’s most prestigious music awards.
In a recent interview on Daybreak Hitz with Kwame Dadzie and Doreen Avio, Dentaa explained that Ghana’s presence at the Grammys would remain minimal unless more industry professionals became members of the Recording Academy.
“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.
Dentaa emphasized that joining the Academy is simple and accessible through its website. “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 considered in the African Music Performance category, she said increasing African participation within the Academy is key.
“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 noted.
Dentaa said she plans to lead a campaign encouraging Ghanaian creatives to join the Recording Academy, which currently boasts over 16,000 members, including more than 13,000 voting members.
