Wizkid
The African Union and the 13-man Jury of the All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA unveiled the list at the Protea Hotel, GRA, Ikeja in Lagos. It was streamed online.
The 2016 awards are tagged AFRIMA 3.0.
In attendance were officials of the African Union Commission, members of the AFRIMA Jury, members of the International Committee of AFRIMA, past AFRIMA winners and nominees, media executives and other stakeholders in the creative/entertainment industries of Africa.
According to the Moderator of the adjudication process, Mr. Mike Strano, about 2700 entries from African music professional were received during the period of May 20, 2015 to July 30, 2016. Describing the nominations process as careful and thorough, Mr. Strano harped on the Jury’s resolve to be fair and transparent.
“The Jury is very careful about being accurate right from the process of verifying eligibility of entries to the process collating and finalising results. It is an evolving process but one we work painstakingly at to ensure transparency and fairness”, Strano explained.
Speaking further Mike Strano who is the Regional Director, Eastern Africa/Co-Producer, AFRIMA said, “There are 34 categories of the award but only 10 are released today August 22, which are the Regional Categories. A new category introduced this year is the “People’s Choice Award” which comes out from a healthy debate by the International Committee of AFRIMA and the Jury.”
The Best Female Artistes and Best Male Artistes of the five regions have been released while the nominees in the continental categories will follow suit seven days after.
Describing the jurors’ experience as rewarding, the Head, Culture Division, African Union Commission, AUC, Mrs. Angela Martins, reiterated the AU and AFRIMA’s objectives of unity among African artistes and the need for continental integration while celebrating its rich music and heritage.
She said, “The adjudication process was very rewarding and as one privileged to be part of the Jury, I was able to discover the widespread talents in the different regions of our beloved continent. Now, that the AFRIMA adjudication has been finalised, we expect that in the coming months, Africans will recognise these nominated artistes by putting in votes for all of them.”
One of the two jury members representing Eastern Africa, Mr. Richard Kawesa, a Ugandan, eulogised AFRIMA’s decision to digitalise its screening process for 2016. “In the past years, we were using paper to grade but now in 2016, AFRIMA has shown innovativeness with all of us making use of technology, laptops, tablets and mobile devices to screen and grade with ease.”
Public voting for the nominees in the different categories of the awards will open on August 30. In partnership with the AUC and the Official Host City, Lagos State, the AFRIMA 3.0. calendar of events for November 4-6, 2016 will include the Africa Music Summit on Friday, November 4, and the AFRIMA Music Village, an open concert-style festival featuring nominees and other top billed music stars. The grand awards ceremony holds on Sunday, November 6 with over 2,500 guests expected in Lagos, Nigeria for the various events.
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