Olamilekan Okeowo
- Public voting to commence on August 21
African Union Commission and the 13-man Jury of the All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, have unveiled the Nominees List for the 2017 edition of AFRIMA, the continent’s biggest music awards on Tuesday, August 8, 2017 at Renaissance Hotel, Ikeja in Lagos, Nigeria.
The highly anticipated Nominees List for the 2017 AFRIMA Awards which has the biggest acts on the continent was announced in the presence of officials of the African Union Commission, members of the AFRIMA Jury comprising of Charles Tabu (DRC), Robert E. Ekukole (Cameroun).  Christian Syren (South Africa), David Tayorault (Cote de Ivoire), Olisa Adibua (Nigeria), Joett Namatta (Tanzania), Tabu Osusa (Kenya) Hadja Kobélé Keita(Guinea) and Omar Es Saidi (Morocco) , members of the International Committee of AFRIMA, past AFRIMA winners and nominees, media executives and other stakeholders in the creative and entertainment industries in Africa.
According to Mr. Chris Cyren, the juror from Southern Africa, 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. She also noted the great improvement of the submissions this year, as it is more impressive than previous years.
‘’This robust submission this year clearly shows the appreciation and recognition of the music awards.’’ She noted 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 She also 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.
The Best Female Artistes and Best Male Artistes of the five regions have been released while the nominees in the continental categories will be announced on Friday, August 11, 2017.
Public voting for the nominees in the different categories of the awards will open on August 21, 2017 on www.afrima.org. In partnership with the AUC, A range of rich and exhilarating events for The AFRIMA 2017 such as the Music Village and the AFRIMA Music Business Summit is slated on November 10-12, 2017 and will be broadcast across 84 countries around the world.
