My First (and probably last) Glitz Style Awards

For a very long time, I have been an introverted “stay home” kind of girl but last Saturday, 10^th September, I ditched my regular weekend ritual of binge watching series and “bed time” to attend the second edition of the Glitz Style Awards held at the Mövenpick Hotel. Being a novice at attending these manner of events, I didn’t know what to expect but I thought I was in for a healthy dose of elegance, classiness and epic organisation. How mistaken I was! From the extremely late start, wedding themed décor to an MC who seems to have been inadequately prepared, I was extremely disappointed. Before I get into everything that went down, I think is appropriate that I throw in a disclaimer. This is my humble opinion with NO SHADE INTENDED.

With that out of the way let’s get down to business.

The invite for the event stated that the red carpet was to start at 7:30pm so the British part of me wanted to get there before this time in order to be early or on time. The Ghanaian part of me burst into laughter at this thought because clearly the British in me didn’t know that “Ghana Man Time” was really a thing and not a joke. After a very heated argument, the Ghanaian in me and the British in me had come to what I felt was a reasonable agreement. It was exactly quarter to 8 when I arrive at the venue with my British side very irritated at this new way of life. Truth be told, my Ghanaian side had expected that by 8pm the red carpet would have started because thirty minutes can be considered fashionably late. At this point I am so sure that you can understand my shock when the supposed “cocktail” went on till after 9:30pm when the red carpet started. At this point I had reach the height of my boredom and just wanted to get the night over and done with. It didn’t help that my brothers were having fun in our favourite “coded location” and flooding my phone with numerous pictures. It was then, I knew I was in for a long LONG night. “Heaven save me”, I prayed.

At long last, the battle had ended and I made my way into the hall to find my seat. Due to the fact that I was attending with a friend who happened to be a nominee, I had a nominee’s ticket and thought that the seating plan would go according to that but it did not. I recently heard that there was a nominees table but as to whether it was used by nominees or not, I know not.  Most of the nominees just sat around different parts of the hall and would be seen walking from the back when they won in their category. All I have to say to this is REALLY! Why have a nominees table that cannot seat all your nominees? I do not know whether VIP and regular tickets were on sale to the general public but if they were, patrons of VIP tickets should go and take back the difference of the payment because the seating arrangement was awful. It was a though we had signed up to come and see cameramen and cameras rather than an award show. If you were not seated at one of the round tables in front, you probably were not going to see much.

The least said about the décor the better. When I settled in my seat, I took a good look around me and had to ask my friend if I was at an award show or at a wedding reception. Don’t get me wrong, the décor was beautiful and quite elegant but in my modest opinion was not fit for the event in question. It looked too much like a setup for a wedding and all we needed to complete it was a priest.

Speaking of weddings, “shout out (in Wizkid’s voice) to all my ladies who showed up in their wedding gowns. I am no fashion expert so I won’t even dwell too much on this but if your dress is so long that you can barely move without a battalion of soldiers carrying your train then maybe you should chill with the wedding inspiration, but they say beauty is pain so you do you boo. With regards to the clothes, when attending an event of this nature that expressly stated formal or traditional as the dress code, there is no logical reason why you should show up in denim shorts and a tee shirt or jeans and still be let into the venue.

During the cocktail I made a new friend, a very pretty girl who noticed my shy and quiet demeanour and decided to ask why I looked like I was trying to hide from humanity. We got to talking and she then she saw a celebrity who she really liked and went to ask for a picture. What ensued next left me dumbfounded and I could not believe my eyes. This so- called celebrity who I believe has more pride than common sense, ridiculed this girl. As if this was not enough, he and his band wagon of “friends” then belittled her and walked of leaving her standing there humiliated. Until this girl told me who those people were, I didn’t even know they had careers or had done anything worth making popular and with my first impression of them, I thank God that I don’t know who they are. As soon as this happened, curiosity got the better part of me and so I googled them and there was still nothing impressive about them. Each of them had a dying or dead career that would need the Holy Trinity to resurrect.  Treating the same fans who can make or break you in such a manner will never help you because you create a horrible impression of yourself. The arts are one of the great things that Ghana has to export to the rest of the world, and these people who work in these fields are the faces of it so someone needs to give them a reality check before they disgrace the country on a bigger platform. (If they can even make it there.)

At this point I am probably sounding like nothing went right but that is not the case at all. There was something spectacular about that night. Something that made the evening perfect and that thing is a vocal powerhouse by the name of W-A-J-E, Waje from Nigeria! Her personality was amazing, her voice powerful and angelic, her stage craft captivating and to top it all she had a beautiful and radiant smile throughout. Her rendition of Ackah Blay’s “Taking the Girls Away” was so funny and nice and I am sure she stole the hearts of many. The people I was sitting with did not know who she was but they all said they loved her humble nature as well as her voice and she had won them over as fans. After her performance I was certain that anytime I was somewhere she was performing at I will pay any amount to see her because I will be assured of an amazing performance.

On the side of the Ghanaians, we had MzVee, Adina and Kidi performing and they did pretty well. MzVee appeared to be having some sort of wardrobe malfunction because she could barely move freely on stage throughout her performance. She had on a green dress with two thigh high slits and these slits did their job of exposing skin but I think they had a PhD in this job so they over did it. Adina’s performance as the opening act was lovely however when she was singing Justin Bieber’s Love Yourself, I couldn’t tell whether she was meant to be singing to live instruments, the instrumentals of the song or the actual song with Justin’s voice in it. Her song, “Too Late” was also very wonderful and is a personal favourite of mine. For Kidi, I have always thought that he had an awesome voice right from his time in MTN Hitmaker but his repertoire of his own songs seem very limited. Since winning Hitmaker, I have seen him perform on quite a number of stages and he always performs “E be like Say” and then moves on to songs by others. This has made me wonder whether he has any other songs or this is his “Jesus and Christ” (in the words of my Grandmother.) He is a wonderful singer and I think the world needs more from him.

Something the all the Ghanaian acts did during each of their performances, didn’t sit quite well with me. Each of them came and performed songs by foreign acts and I felt that on such a platform singing African or even Ghanaian hits would have promoted us a tad bit more to the other nationals who were at and around the venue. It would also have reminded the Ghanaians of the good we have in us because we are promoting our own. Even Waje from Nigeria added a Ghanaian song to her repertoire and I am sure many folks appreciated that so unless the Glitz team had expressly stated that this be done, I think the artistes and their teams need to work on their song choices.

The Glitz Style Awards was hosted by the gorgeous Sika Osei who I think was unprepared for her role or really nervous. Her interactions with the people who came on stage at various points seemed forced, her opening lines sounded like a primary school kid at a recital, and top it all she did something silly. She had to announce that the Glitz Africa Fashion Week is coming up on the 7^th to 9^th of October and this particular event is to take place at the Kempinski Hotel. Considering that Mövenpick was hosting the Awards and was a sponsor, she should have simply mentioned the Kempinski venue and left it but she dwelled on it, talking about she liked the way it sounded and blah blah blah. If I was a part of the Movënpick team I would not take this likely at all. You don’t stand in one hotel and market their rival hotel. It is a big NO and very disrespectful.

Speaking of the venue, I take it that they were the ones in charge of the food, drinks and it’s service and so it is appalling how slow and crappy the service was, how cold and bland the food tasted and how bad the juice (abi punch) tasted. I am of the view that the food was cold because it was probably prepared earlier and left till the time they were served but if this was the case then they should invest in food warmers. We were served a burger and some drink that tasted like punch you mix with water to serve at a kid’s party.  When I was taking my leave I realised that some other tables had more than just that sorry excuse for a burger and I hope it tasted better than what I put in my mouth. My friend and I could not contain our laughter at the fact that they had laid out some “serious cutlery” on the table whilst there was barely any food to eat. Maybe it was part of the décor and not actually meant to be used.

Ah! How could I forget our dear Nana Akua Addo’s tears? So for those of you who have not yet heard, Nana Akua won the award for The Best Dressed Celebrity on the Red Carpet and when she got on stage to receive her award, she was in tears. I was wondering, why? Is this the highest achievement in her career, she being overly dramatic or an honest overflow of emotion? I leave you to be the judge of that.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have come to end of my Glitz Style Award impressions but I cannot end without making mention of Ama K. Abebrese. Oshe critic of life! She made my night extra hilarious with her numerous comments and kept unknowingly kept us laughing. As you already know I am no expert in this field so I don’t really have any profound advice for the Glitz Team. Congratulations to all the award winners. So until my next event, it is Goodbye and God Bless.

Written by: S