Who set Confidence up?
The 2013 edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards has come and gone. Unlike the previous years, this year’s edition has been getting good reviews and has been hailed as the best so far in the 14-year history of the awards by critics whose credibility has never been doubted. So on a consensus, we can all concur that indeed this year, the awards met the expectations of many.
But wait a minute, there is one area that didn’t live up to expectation. Most people who watched the awards on GTV and GHOne respectively were left to watch a very dry red carpet session which, according to many observers took the shine out of the otherwise great awards show.
What I and many other Ghanaians saw on television during the red carpet bit was good old Confidence bringing wahala onto herself as she interacted with celebs on the red carpet with the kind of questions she asked the celebs.
Occasionally I turned my TV to another programme because I couldn’t stand the embarrassment that Confidence brought on herself. Now how can I allow the wahala that ensued on the red carpet at the fourteenth edition of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards to die without having a bite at the cherry? It will be unusual of me. Very unusual of me I must say!
If you squeezed your face when the news broke out that, Confidence Haugen will be partnering Benny Blanco to host again this year’s red carpet of the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards then you were not alone, I did too! I frowned not because I didn’t like Confidence but because she didn’t impress many Ghanaians, myself included at her first show.
So bringing her on for the second time made me wonder what could possibly be amiss. Weren’t there any other suitable replacements?
“Couldn’t the organizers find a suitable person to host it?”, “What’s the basis for brining her back?” these and more questions ran through my mind. Sadly there was no way I could get answers. I could rave and rant but I could not force
Confidence out, after she was announced as a red carpet hostess.
Last year, Confidence was brought onto the red carpet because of the Big Brother Africa experience. But on what basis was she brought back especially when her first experience was nothing to write home about? I dare say that whoever picked her
did a great damage to her.
Red carpets are used mostly at shows. Journalists or media personnel get to discuss and interact with celebs before they make their way to the auditorium to wait for the commencement of the shows. They are often coupled with publicity backdrops which contain logos or emblems for photography purposes.
The red carpet experience is very relevant because it is the only opportunity that the media, especially, get to interact with celebs and find out their expectations about a show.
I do not know what happened but Confidence appeared over-excited. I cannot readily read her mind but I will guess she was overwhelmed at being brought back to host the red carpet when she knew she didn’t perform well at her maiden edition. Like I said, this is based on my hunch.
Most of the questions Confidence posed to the celebs were “nonfa”. They do not have any relevance to the awards. We watch the red carpet sessions in foreign shows and the hosts have some knowledge about the celebs they speak with.... at least their names and what they do.
One would have thought that a similar thing would have been replicated for our dear Confidence but no. Clearly, how she performed gave the indication that indeed she wasn’t told or didn’t know the names of the celebs that she was interviewing.
From what I noticed on TV, she has a mild soft for Nana Adjoa Awindor, host of once popular Greetings From Abroad series and that same love was transferred to her daughter; Efya. Interviewing her, Confidence did what annoyed most people by soliciting for votes for her to win her category “vote for her, vote”. For a red carpet host, I thought neutrality was important but not to Confidence. She turned many people off.
The fact that the place was hot and sweaty didn’t help Confidence but the patrons didn’t care, all they wanted was the host to give a good account for of herself. How annoying was it when she referred to someone as Naa Ashorkor? Or asking a musician “I think you guys were nominated for 9 categories” or “I hear you make music” or “And you are a nominee too?”
Her line of questioning and mannerism as she asked those questions were not the best. I do not think it’s relevant to ask questions which have nothing to do with the event as stake. I believe all the questions must be centered on the show being held. Occasionally Confidence went on a tangent and asked questions which didn’t make sense and perhaps that also contributed to her poor showing.
With 14 years of the awards, Ghanaians and several other nationals who made their way to the venue merited a great show than what happened. Yes Confidence was awful but let’s blame the people who set her up.
By Ebenezer Ananagfio