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| Davido |
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| Runtown |
After a 3-week thorough process of
screening and adjudication, 13-man Jury of the prestigious All Africa
Music Awards,AFRIMA, representing the five regions of Africa, the
Diaspora and the African Union Commission, Tuesday, announced
nominees for regional categories ahead of its November 9-12, awards
ceremony.
The event, held at Renaissance Hotel,
Ikeja, Lagos, saw the continent’s biggest names in hip hop music go
head to head. Two of Africa’s most popular music stars, Davido and
Wizkid are to battle for the Best Male category in West Africa. The
duo also has the likes of Runtown, Drake, Tekno, Ycee, Mr. Eazi,
Guinean MHD and DJ Arafat from Ivory Cost to beat in order to clinch
the 23.9karat Gold plate AFRIMA trophy.
South African rappers, AKA and Nasty C
are up for the same category in the Southern Africa region, just as
Kenyan hip hop star, Octopizzo will slug it out with Tanzanian
Diamond Platnumz and Ethiopian Sinishaw Legesse among others for the
Best Male Artiste in the East African region.
While female acts like Tiwa Savage,
Yemi Alade and Babes Wodumo, Aramide,Viviane Chidid,
Seyi Shay, Becca and Zeynab are also
nominated for Best Female Act in their respective regions.
Announcing the nominees, Mr. Chris
Cyren, the juror from Southern Africa said 4,816 entries from African
music professionals and music artistes were received at the close of
a two-month entry submission window on July 17, this year. He
described the nominations process as rigorous and thorough, as he
emphasized on the Jury’s resolve to be fair and transparent in line
with the AFRIMA values of FACEIT (fairness, authenticity, creativity,
excellence, integrity, transparency).
Charles Tabu, AFRIMA’s juror from
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), harped on the need for music
lovers in Africa to explore different genre of music from all regions
on the continent. Commenting on a question of the criteria of
nominees, Mr Bob Ekukole from Cameroon representing Central Africa
reiterated that ‘the nominees were picked based on production
quality, talent and creativity, melody, originality and authenticity,
composition and arrangement. It has to do with the quality of music
not on the number of views from any online video platform, some songs
from certain regions have more than half a billion views and would
have garnered the awards based on such sentiment but it is not so. It
has to do with quality.’
Ms Angela Martins, Head, Culture
Division, African Union Commission, AUC, noted that the adjudication
process was a comprehensive and superb work of the jurors. "This
robust submission this year clearly shows the appreciation and
recognition of the music awards," she said, adding that the
African Union Commission is geared towards investing in the youth by
involving them in the African Union’s 2063 Agenda, which intends to
make the youth evolve a desire and expertise in the needed
developmental facets of Africa in all areas.
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