Ofori Amponsah narrates how he moved from receiving no award in 2001 to winning 7 at 2006 VGMA

Legendary Highlife musician, Ofori Amponsah has recounted the journey to sweeping seven awards in 2006 at the VGMA’s after he was disappointed for not winning an award in 2001. Ofori said that he came from the era of Daddy Lumba and Kojo Antwi, where it was difficult to rise above them.

In an interview on Wednesday, November 5, 2025, Ofori-Amponsah narrated how he was disappointed after one of his hit songs ‘Asew’ could not win him an award at the 2001 VGMA. According to him, after getting six nominations with ‘Asew’ at the VGMAS in 2001, he was confident that the song will win him an award but that didn’t happen.

“I thought ‘Asew’ will have an award. So, I went there with all my girlfriends thinking Asew will win an award. I had like six nominations. “The last award came, and I thought oh let me wait but the after the last but one I said let me just went and walked out of the hall,” he said.

Ofori Amponsah further explained that that disappointment motivated and encouraged him to work harder, coming back stronger in 2006 to win seven awards. It can be recalled that in 2006, Ofori Amponsah swept 7 awards, including Artiste of the Year at the VGMAS. 

He won the Artiste of the year, Album of the year, Best Male vocal performance of the year, Highlife song of the year and other awards.His achievement has since been acknowledged as one of the most iconic moments in Ghana’s music history. “It gave me some kind of energy, and I said you know what no awards anymore, let me just work hard and hard. 

“I went back to the drawing board, did some songs and that was it,” he added. Ofori added that although his song, “Otoolege” took the awards, “Asew” was his greatest hit and was supposed to win an award. “Asew was my greatest hit and should have won an award, but broken heart brings more money,” he said.