Malawi Broadcasting Corporation, who are the organisers of the Entertainers of the Year Awards have made changes on some names which were nominated in several categories.
This follows a review on queries raised by several stakeholders and artists after the announcement of the nominees last week.
After consultations, the organisers have replaced Kendall Kamwendo, who was nominated in the film director category with Ignacious Scott Kaphinde. Kamwendo is mainly an actor and film producer and not a director.
They have also replaced Mwawi Kumwenda from netballer of the year list with Shabel Bengo. Although Kumwenda got the nomination, she has been inactive for a period as she was on maternity leave.
Entertainers of the Year organising chairperson Chisomo Mwamadi said they thought some of the discrepancies raised could compromise the integrity of the competition and the committee agreed to remove some names from the list.
Mwamadi said the changes were made in consultation with the individuals involved.
“After we released the nominations list, we received several calls from stakeholders trying to find out one or two things. The first was on Kendall and the owner enlightened us on his rightful role. We engaged him and he opted out and according to the votes, he has been replaced,” he said.
The other nomination which also stirred a debate was on the nomination of the duo AidFest and Kineo in the band of the year category.
Mwamadi said the issue was also tackled at committee level and that according to the technical definition; a band starts from two people going up.
The organising committee chairperson further said the execution of the awards ceremony this year has been improved in accordance to the feedback they got last year. He said one of the key changes is to shorten the event from four hours to two hours.
“We noted that presenters were making unnecessary speeches on stage and that lengthened the business of the day. This year we will go straight in the award presentations. The numbers of people voting has also massively improved this time around,” he said.
In a separate interview, Kamwendo said the creative industry is growing and it is incumbent upon people who follow the arts to start correctly identifying the artists for the correct roles they play.
He said: “In both the two recent productions I have been involved in, I have not assumed the role of a director. It is misleading to have myself nominated in that category. Even if I went ahead and win that award, I do not think I would feel happy with it.”
