On the red carpet at the Accra International Conference Centre (AICC), Saturday, June 1, Highlife singer Kinaata revealed his greatest wish for the 2024 Telecel Ghana Music Awards (TGMAs) was to take the Reggae/Dancehall Song honour, relishing the challenge presented by the established Reggae/Dancehall acts in the category.

“Okay, I have three nominations, and I’m eyeing the Reggae/Dancehall Song of the Year. I mean, it’s a new category for me. I haven’t been there before; I have all my boss-men there. I mean, my godfather is there (Samini), my big brother Stonebwoy is there, Epixode – everybody is there. I want to win it,” he revealed to AJ Sarpong, predicting: “Effiakuma Love is winning it.”

His forecast was right. With his first-ever Reggae song titled Effiekuma Love, the singer-songwriter and rapper won the trophy, becoming the first Highlife artiste to beat Reggae/Dancehall artistes on their own turf, inverting what Shatta Wale did in 2019. 

Apart from Kinaata's peculiar victory, the 2024 TGMAs recorded two more instances of artistes venturing into categories previously foreign to them and winning: Hiphop/Hiplife act Amerado Burner bagged the Highlife Song of the Year honour with his megahit Kwaku Ananse and Stonebwoy received his first Songwriter of the Year trophy.

Although a Reggae/Dancehall artiste, Shatta Wale with his Paq-produced My Level, was announced the winner of the Highlife Song of the Year award at the Vodafone Ghana Music Awards (VGMAs) in 2019. This shocked the nation, stirring up controversy. Critics found it an affront to the Highlife legacy. Record producer and record label owner Richie Mensah asserted My Level was not Highlife but "it's Afropop". Musicologist Professor John Collins was on the same page. In contrast, however, rap and Hiplife artiste Okyeame Kwame in a recent interview with YouTuber Kwadwo Sheldon asserted the 2018 song was legitimately Highlife.

Meanwhile, Kinaata has explained why he was on the red carpet but oddly absent when the time came to receive his only trophy on the night. He was reacting to a Facebook user accusing him of intentionally not going up stage for the Reggae/Dancehall Song of the Year black star-shaped trophy.

"I was traveling so... I did an appearance on the red carpet and left," he said. "It wasn't deliberate."

Effiakuma Love has a part two on Kinaata's first-ever tape, a 7-track extended play (EP) titled Kofi OO Kofi; it is called Effiakuma Broken Heart, and sees the singer returning to Highlife.