Among the performances at the just ended Telecel Ghana Music Awards (TGMAs), was a Daddy Lumba Tribute, which has since faced backlash online for being “uncreative” and “mediocre.”
Media personality Andy Dosty, who curated and produced that segment, has now opened up about what happened behind the scenes.
Speaking on Joy FM X Space hosted by Kwame Dadzie on May 10, 2026, Andy Dosty revealed that filmmaker and creative director Kobi Rana had initially approached him months earlier with a concept for the tribute.
Explaining how events unfolded, Andy explained that Kobi Rana’s vision involved a full concert-style setup, complete with dramatic stage elements, audience interaction, and children carrying lamps.
However, when presented to the TGMA production team, the idea was rejected and described as too expensive and time-consuming for the allotted 10-minutes.
“Earlier on, Kobi Rana approached me, came up with an idea, beautiful idea. Unfortunately, when I presented it to the team, they felt like there was no connection. It was more of a concert. I presented it to the team, but they felt like it would be better if there was a proper Daddy Lumba concert where his followers, fans or revellers had come to enjoy the show because, according to him, someone would be seated in the crowd talking while children came in with lamps and all of that.
“This involves a higher budgeted performance, which would also take time. Meanwhile, I was allotted a 10-minute performance,” Andy stated.
Andy Dosty further disclosed that before Kobi Rana came on board, he(Andy), already had a separate concept prepared for the tribute.
However, due to Kobi Rana’s reputation and experience in creative direction, he decided to give him the opportunity to lead the artistic direction.
“Prior to Kobi Rana coming in, I had scripted a concept, presented it to the team, but when he came up, I felt like, for someone like Kobi Rana, smart individual, a creative, he’s a director, he’s this, he’s that.
“So, I mean, there’s no way I can compare my level to him when it comes to art direction. He is way up there. So I gave him that platform,” he stated.
Andy further alleged that Kobi Rana later engaged directly with the production team without involving him, despite the fact that he had been assigned as the producer for that segment.
“Unfortunately, he couldn’t wait to execute it with me. He went to them directly and dealt with them. Meanwhile, I’m producing it. So the team came back to me and said it wasn’t connecting. So I should come up with another idea. Hence what we did yesterday,” he disclosed.
The media personality revealed that the artistes who eventually performed the tribute were not the original choices he had in mind.
According to him, gospel musician Nacee was initially supposed to perform the “Makra Mo” section because of his soulful style of delivery.
“First of all, the ‘Makra Mo’ piece I did originally, I had Nacee in mind. You know, Nacee has this soulful approach to his music or delivery. So Nacee would have come in to deliver that,” he explained.
He also disclosed that singer KiDi was part of the initial plan, but communication challenges made it difficult to secure him on time.
“Kidi would follow. I reached out to Nacee. Nacee had a plan that because he has other plans, his team had decided to stay back for a while. Kidi, I called him on countless occasions. My younger brother won’t pick up. Send him messages he will read, won’t respond,” Andy said.
He noted that things only changed after DJ Vyrusky intervened.
“Until I reached out to Vyrusky. The time they came back to me, it was too late,” he added.
Andy then decided to work with musician Ras Kuuku because of his previous performance experience with Daddy Lumba.
“So I felt like, Ras Kuuku, I was with Lumba and performing somewhere and Lumba was amazed. So I felt like Ras Kuuku would be a better choice. So he was the first person I contacted,” he said.
He further disclosed that rapper Sarkodie was supposed to make a surprise appearance during the tribute performance.
“Later on, I felt like then the shocker would have been Sarkodie. So the plan was that Sarkodie would come up on the stage with a champagne, not sing the ‘Se Sumye Kasa’ song, but would come and just dance to the song and exit the stage,” Andy Dosty revealed.
When asked during the discussion when he eventually developed the final concept that was executed on the night, Andy said the idea only came together after Kobi Rana’s proposal was dropped.
“This was two weeks ago, after Kobi Rana’s concept didn’t work. And so it was about two or three weeks ago,” he answered.
Comparing the 2026 tribute set to the Yaw Sarpong tribute performance from the previous year, Andy Dosty insisted he still believes this year’s production was stronger because he had access to the artistes he preferred to work with.
“This year would be better because I had artists or the preferred artists to work on,” he stated.
He also claimed that during preparations for the previous year’s tribute performance, several gospel musicians he contacted declined to participate, although he refused to mention names.
“Forgive me that I’m revealing too much. But you see, gospel musicians, last year, I reached out to a lot of them. They gave me excuses. I mean, if I’m pushed, I’ll mention a lot of names and it may not fester well in my relationship with them,” he disclosed.
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