Gregory Promise Bortey Newman, who goes by the stage name King Promise has disclosed that he received plenty of advice from various individuals urging him to boycott the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards, especially after multiple nominations without a win.
The ‘Ten Toes’ singer who was a guest on The Day Show on TV3 said despite the persistent lack of recognition, he made a conscious decision to attend the awards ceremony every year for the sake of his loyal fans.
According to the industry heavyweight, he recognized that the fault did not lie with his fans not supporting him but rather with external factors beyond their control.
“It’s not the people because when I drop the music it goes crazy so I mean I know the fans do support me,” explained King Promise “Even with the VGMAs there were times where I had advice from people who were like ‘cancel them, don’t go again’. People say a lot of stuff it’s up to you to make what you think of it”
Despite the trolls and commentary, King Promise has been consistent at every VGMA award, producing exceptional music and performing annually
“I always went still and performed, even when I didn’t win, I go the next year to perform, It’s about the fans for me”
He emphasized that he creates music from a special place within him, driven by a genuine love for the art and the absence of awards does not deter him from pursuing his passion.
“Awards or not I was born to do this, I make this music from a special place and it’s not because of awards yeah so for that fact when we get an award, we drop bangers, when we don’t get we still drop bangers, we just keep going,” he posited.
King Promise at the 2023 VGMA Awards held at the Accra International Conference Center made history by snagging two highly coveted awards, “Best Afrobeats/Afropop Artiste” and “Album of the Year”; his first in a long time.
He was also quick to put down rumours that he was too laid back in promoting his music and revealed that he does everything possible to get his records out there including doing interviews and other PR/Marketing executions.
He further revealed that he is only laid back with his association with so many people but he was cool with everyone and keeps a close-knit circle.