Breaking down Muma votes
The second Music Malawi Awards (Muma) have come and gone, awarding local artists for their work in the just ended year.
But the awards’ credibility continues to be subjected to lengthy debate.
Talking about the winners, the Best Band award category, won by little known Karonga-based Lusubilo Band, as well as the Best R’n’B Artist, won by Danny Kalima, formerly known as Sirius, continue to attract the most comments.
On Friday night at Bingu International Conference Centre (BICC) in Lilongwe, patrons were heard murmuring during the event when the two were declared winners.
Arguably, the answer to this lies in voting. A result sheet, which we have in our possession, exposes gaps in voting patterns with about total 8 000 votes cast across 15 categories during the 14 days.
Only rapper Tay Grin, with 1 562 votes, and gospel songstress Princess Chitsulo, with 1 071 votes, polled more than 1 000 votes.
In the Best Gospel Music category, Favoured Martha came second with a meagre 24 votes, Mada Ngoleka received 16 votes while Ethel Kamwendo-Banda, who remains one of darlings of gospel music, got two votes and Gloria Manong’a received none.
On the other hand, in the Best Hip Hop category, which was won by Tay Grin, Phyzix came second with 328 votes, Gwamba received 116 votes, Dominant 1 got 86 votes with K2B Block at the bottom with 81 votes.
Fourteen votes was all Dan Lu needed to win the Best Male Artist. SkeffaChimoto received nine votes, Lawi got six votes, Lulu received five votes and KateleleChing’oma received no vote.
In the contemporary Afro-Pop category, Dan Lu received 82 votes against Gwamba’s 37, Piksy’s 17, seven for Skeffa and zero for Lucius Banda.
Arguably, one of the artists who has had a grand year, Lawi won the Best Acoustic Jazz award with a mere 20 votes with AnkoLayi coming second with three votes while the rest of the nominees—Peter Mawanga and the Amaravi Movement, Agorosso and Alinafe Jim—got no vote.
Another category that continues to attract debate is the Best Band. With two of Malawi’s successful bands nominated, many thought the winner would either be Black Missionaries or Zembani.
However, Lusubilo Band polled the highest number of votes at 263 followed by Mizu Band with 35 votes. Malimba got five votes, Black Missionaries got one votes while Zembani Band received no vote.
Princes Chitsulo’sNdidzayimbabewon the Best Song award with 374 votes. MukumaneNdichosowaChangaby King James Phiri came second with 119 votes while one of the big hits of 2013, Lawi’sAmaonaKuchedwagot eight votes. Lulu’s Ndzaleraand ThokoKatimba’sMwasinthaNyengo Yanga both received a single vote each.
The voting pattern is the same in the other categories with only a handful of artists polling over a 100 votes.
It is worth noting that some of the artists that have won went flat out campaigning for votes through social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter.
The general review coming from the awards is that, despite the staging being exceptional, the awards need serious amendments on how nominees are selected and how the voting should be done.
