Groove Awards: The Call for Credibility

I am curious. Just how credible are the Groove Awards? Can all the winners stand above reproach, I mean tall enough, without an iota of doubt and say, “Yes, I won, and God is in this?” dear reader, I know this topic sentence has in a way driven you to imagine that my aim is to demean the wonderful work done by the Groove crew! Far be it from me. As a matter of fact, I hope to be one of the contestants someday to come.  The platform has contributed to the appreciation of Gospel music in the country in in an incredible way. However, the question of credibility in the one-month process between nomination and the awards day is what has been bugging me ever since I started following Groove events in 2014.

Since Groove is a gospel platform, I think it’s recognition as the largest and perhaps the best awards wing has to achieve a high standard as far as Christianity is concerned. Anyone involved in the process should realize that s/he is the salt and light of Kenya and that in most cases whatever s/he does is likely to be an endorsement to the others. Kenya is a growing democracy which is still struggling on matters transparency and good governance. With great names such as Groove and the many respected artistes we watch on TV and interact with, it’s only fair that, if these names belong to true believers they must needs understand that they are a lamp set on a city hill. Then we can use groove as an example every five years when we vote for national leaders. In my opinion, I think the Groove Awards Team can look into the following areas that compromise credibility in their voting system:
This is 2018, Technology is at its best
It’s very easy to send continuous messages for the whole month without one having to create a new one every time. All you need is to download an automated sms program, create a message and the receiver’s number. Then you set the frequency of your messaging. Well, we are normally encouraged to vote as many times as possible and this maybe is the best thing one can long for. The question is, what does the voting as many times as possible mean? I tend to think it’s just enough for me to vote once, and since we are just enough a crowd in this country, most of whom love gospel music, one is enough. There’s need for a criterion that prohibits voting beyond once. This way, we are likely to get genuine winners. Since Safaricom is among the sponsors, I’m pretty sure they have a way of effecting this. I just hope I am not destroying any business.
Africa’s Battle, “the rich vs the poor”
With the open system of voting, there are ‘brethren’ who are likely to marshal their way up to the trophy table via sms system. If one wants to win the groove award by all means, just like our honorable politicians, their pocket will have their say. This is how: Get a few youths from your fans in various regions. Buy some lunch or supper on the selected days and buy different sim-cards. There you go, you have a voting ‘company.’ Wait for the big announcement on the D-day.  On the other hand, if you are just beginning your journey and you’ve released a nice, scriptural song but there’s no cash, in this system, “wait upon the LORD.”
Anyone Can vote
Groove has come a long way. It’s no longer at the stage where the team is struggling with publicity. In the Kenyan law, one cannot vote in the general elections if one has not attained eighteen years. And even after that, it’s a must for the citizen to register for voting. Since music is a worthwhile career and if we want to maintain its pride, it is high time the crew thought about changing the voting style. They can borrow a leaf from Grammy Awards. I don’t think just anyone should be allowed to vote. We end up getting votes from people who have not even heard the songs but because they are buddies with the artists, the ballots are cast.
 I hope this message reaches the organisers and if they deem it fit, may they implement it.

YALI CHECKS

We live in an era where information flows from all corners of the sphere, every second. With such an influx, and this being a knowledge-hungry society, we are prone to what King Solomon would say in the holy scriptures thus; “in a multitude of words sin is not lacking, but he who restrains his lips is wise.” Back then, the major medium of information was the word of mouth. Centuries later, we have innumerable sources of information yet some are still being invented.

Since people want to hear us, we feel obligated to share anything any time we receive it. This has brought in the error of fake news. As an artiste as well as an observer of other artistes, it is sometimes embarrassing when I hear songs that create illusive lifestyles, promote propaganda, hatred and disrespect to the human race and the deity.

I take this opportunity to applaud Young African Leaders Network (YALI) for coming up with a sensitization program dubbed YALICHECKS. This was intended to influence young people to verify information before sharing. This was a challenge that I took and thought about how I had been sharing information previously. After making the resolve and defeating the temptation of forwarding updates on whatsapp regardless of how juicy they seemed, I organized an event at the Kenya National Library Services yesterday.

Since music is my God-given tool for communication, I wrote a short song which saw all the attendees pledge to Stop. Reflect. Verify before sharing information. Being part of Dowe Music & Arts, I believe in authenticity and I think this tagline is timely and it’s a good action point to pass on to students, fans and friends. The lyrics of the song are as follows:

I pledge to,

Stop! Check! Reflect-Verify information

I won’t share anything I don’t know

If you want to listen to the soundbite of the tune just click Yalichecks Song

I strongly believe that if everyone (especially the young people) took time to sieve the kind of information s/he receives, then our society can be a better place. We won’t fight on account of what we heard was said about us, we won’t live on someone else’s speech, we will get good music that is authentic and this will make us appreciate our motherland- Afrika the more.

Below are ample photos of the event we had yesterday.

 Remember to ‘Stop. Reflect. Verify information before sharing responsibly.

A big thank you to the American Corner courtesy of the US Embassy and Knls Nakuru for the space.