Malawi misses out on continental awards
The gulf in class between Malawi’s music with the rest of Africa was exposed on Saturday night as Malawi continued to miss out on the continent’s MTV Africa Music Awards (Mama).
In a show monitored on MTV Base on DStv, Zambian artists, who usually collaborate with Malawians, were also nowhere close to the awards as none of them was nominated for the event at Durban International Convention Centre (ICC), KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
On the other hand, Tanzania, Malawi’s neighbour to the north, won Best Live Award courtesy of Diamond Platnumz.
Tanzania’s image was boosted further with two other nominations for Best Female (Vanessa Mdee) and Best Male (Diamond).
This comes against the background that some musicians in the country release music videos with the hope of breaking into the international stage.
But since the awards were introduced seven years ago, no Malawian has ever been nominated. It was for Channel O Music Awards that Tay Grin was nominated in 2007 and 2008 for Best Male, Best Southern Africa Video and Best Hip Hop Video.
Missing out on these awards should be enough reason for Malawians to return to the drawing board and up their game.
The awards were introduced in 2008 to celebrate contemporary music and honour creativity on the African continent. This year’s awards were held for the fifth time to mark the tenth anniversary of MTV Base Africa.
The awardees were as follows: Best Female (YemiAlade, Nigeria), Best Male (Davido, Nigeria), Best Group (P-Square, Nigeria), Best New Act Transformed by Absolut (Patoranking, Nigeria), Best Hip Hop (CassperNyovest, South Africa), Best Collaboration (All Eyes On Me by AKA, Burna Boy, Da LES and JR, SA/Nigeria), Song of the Year (Dorobucci by Mavins, Nigeria), Video of the Year (Nafukwa by Riky Rick) Best Pop & Alternative (Jeremy Loops, South Africa), Best Francophone (DJ Arafat, Ivory Coast), Best Lusophone (Ary, Angola), Personality of the Year (Trevor Noah, South Africa), Mama Evolution (D’Banj, Nigeria), Best International (Nicki Minaj), Artist of the Decade (P-Square) and MTV Base Leadership Award (Saran Kaba Jones &S’BuMavundla).
