This and That

Dumbfounded by MUM handouts

Good people, Google had no idea what Danny Kalima does in this world. Neither did YouTube, Soundcloud nor other online where trending R&B musicians position their music to go viral if it is worth the grade nor in radio stations, pubs, vehicles, gigs and other openings where Malawians encounter the very best of local artists.

Just on Saturday, the obscurity of the unknown singer from God-knows-where has vanished into suspicious stardom—thanks to Music Union of Malawi (MUM) and their so-called awards that keep coming like rewards, giveaways and handouts anyway.

Looking at the winners list, Kalima, who was named the best R&B male artist, is not the only poster-face of ill distributed honour that should offer the brains at MUM lessons on everything not do when it comes to awards of merit.

Where MUM fears to tread, merit means excellence—the opposite of the incessant mediocrity that the union continues to recognise with all its glistening alloys just when they are expected to be uplifting Malawian music to international standards.

The misses at the second MUM Music Awards were so glaring that somebody has to remind the music body that awards are meant to confer status on deserving achievers not to massage the egos of overrated underachievers, well-mannered puppets and politically correct minions.

Looking at the winners parade, an open eye cannot miss overrated names like Best Hip Hop and Rap (whatever it means!) artist Tay Grin whose only worthwhile release in the past 12 months was the single The Beach in which he collaborated with The Very Best’s vocalist Essau Mwamwaya and Scotsman Stanley Odd who went unacknowledged when MUM went donating the supposed awards.

Also in this league was the made-up Best Reggae Artist Sally Nyundo who has been on the downward spiral since the early 2000 hit Ras Amadya Nzimbe and one needs to google to realise he dropped a new album titled Tingoti Phee—and it is three years old on the market where it is yet to stir excitement from both buyers and radio listeners.

Such are the awards that Lawi was named Best Acoustic Musician for lack of better words even though the artist used electricity-powered instruments to produce his amazing offerings .

When a music leader mistakes Lawi’s thing for acoustic music, it sounds unfair to blame them for creating monsters as vague as neo-traditional artist category (wheeew!) won by the Edgar ndi Davis duo. A pair, not an artist!

One doesn’t even begin accusing them of killing Malawian music by naming Kamuzu Barracks as the best gospel group.

The last time I raised this issue, people were quick to remind me that it was all about voting. Sure, voting matters. But it is not the only way of defining excellence at our disposal. We can do better.

By the way, March is about honour, a month we celebrate the heroics of the martyrs who died fighting for our nationhood. The sooner we come up with the best way to recognise our deserving heroes, we will continue being blind-folded by a culture which confines national honours to political names and those who sing praise for things politicians do.

National honours are not handouts to be given away so cheaply like MUM Awards.

 

 

Related Articles

Back to top button