AFRIMA releases 2018 awards nominees list

The nominees list for the 5th All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) was on Tuesday unveiled by the African Union Commission (AUC) and the International Jury of AFRIMA, at a press conference held at the Eko Hotels & Suites,  Lagos.

The list covers the five Regional Categories divided into Female and Male categories as follows: Best Female Artiste in Central Africa; Best Male Artiste in Central Africa; Best Female Artiste in Eastern Africa; Best Male Artiste in Eastern Africa; Best Female Artiste in Northern Africa; Best Male Artiste in Northern Africa; Best Female Artiste in Southern Africa; Best Male Artiste in Southern Africa; Best Female Artiste in Western Africa and Best Male Artiste in Western Africa.

A total of 79 songs made it to the Regional nominees list.

Cameroon takes up four of the eight spots in the category for Best Female Artiste in Central Africa, followed by DRC (two), and Angola (two). In the category for Best Male Artiste in Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) takes the lead with five spots followed by Cameroon with two and Chad, one.

From Eastern Africa, the female category Kenya holds three spots while Uganda takes two with Ethiopia, Rwanda and Tanzania occupying one nomination slot respectively. In the male category, Kenya and Tanzania maintain three nominations each Tanzania ties with Ethiopia and Tanzania registering one nomination apiece.

The Algerian female artistes have a lead ahead of their male counterparts as they took four out of the six spots in the category for Best Female Artiste in Northern Africa, with Tunisia and Egypt holding one spot each. The Male category has Moroccan artistes occupying four of the eight spots, Algeria (two), Egypt and Tunisia earning one nomination each.

The Southern African region is dominated by South African artistes both in the male and female categories, with a total of nine spots, followed by Zimbabwe (three), while Swaziland, Namibia, Malawi, and Zimbabwe take one spot each.

The Western region male category is having great contenders between Nigeria and Ghana. Holding up four spots is Nigeria, closely followed by Ghana (three), while Guinea and Cape Verde hold one spot each. The Best Female Artiste in the Western region has Nigeria and Ghana in a tie of two spots respectively, with Benin (one), Mali (one), Senegal (one) and Cote d’Ivoire (one).

While providing insights into the process by which the entries were reviewed and graded, the spokesperson for the International Jury of AFRIMA and the Programme Director, Cameroon TV and Radio, CRTV, Mr. Robert Ekukole (representing Eastern Africa) explained that tasked with the responsibility of carefully and mindfully sieving through 8,009 entries submitted by African music professionals within the awards validity period of August 1, 2017 to August 1, 2018, “the jury members have no choice but to be thorough and deliberate about their work because we will be doing artistes and creators of these works a great injustice if we don’t accord them the review their works deserve

“The AFRIMA Nominees list we arrived at reflects and represents the top-notch creative expressions of music talents and professionals within the relevant regions and validity period. However, we also have a challenge where some artistes failed to enter for the awards and as such missed the opportunity to be evaluated or possibly nominated for AFRIMA.”

The AFRIMA’s open voting process will occur via the AFRIMA website, www.afrima.org. Music lovers will be empowered to decide which artiste/song emerges winners of the 23.9 carat gold-plated AFRIMA trophy.

The 5th AFRIMA is scheduled to hold in November 2018, other activities scheduled for the main awards events is the Africa Music Business Roundtable, a combination of musical conference and trade expo where stakeholders in the creative and arts industry come together to discuss the business of music in Africa, also the AFRIMA Music Village, a music concert and cultural festival that accommodates over 40,000 music lovers across the continent who witness live performances from their favourite African artistes.