UMP getting bigger, better
Recently the entertainment world witnessed the Urban Music People (UMP) Awards held in Blantyre. Various art players including musicians, fashion designers and models were decorated for their excellent contributions to the arts world. Our correspondent Harold Kapindu caught up with UMP co-founder Ken Zizwa for a review of this year’s event.
Q
: Why did you decide to blend the music and fashion awards?
A
: We wanted to close the gap between these two sectors but also experiment how they can leverage on each other. We had earlier intended to hold the Fashion Awards as a standalone event and return with the full music awards next year. But our stance evolved upon realising that we can blend the two awards and following pleas from musicians to recognise their efforts this year.
The event was an overall success in several aspects.
Q
: How would you describe this year’s UMP music and fashion blended edition awards ceremony? A failure or a success? Please explain
A
: The innovative idea to blend fashion and music awards was well received and we managed to bridge the gap between these two interrelated sectors.
Q
: What are some of the highlights of this year’s event? What lessons have you learnt?
A
: The partnership with Mibawa TV to broadcast live on their TV and FB was a first for a local awards show. This expanded our audience to local and international audience.
Q
: How are the UMP winners determined?
A
: The results were well received, and generally accepted by the public. This points out to the robust nomination and voting process we adopted this year.
Q
: What success story can you share about this year’s awards?
A
: We have so many success stories. UMP is now a household name. Impact is that it has pushed many artists and designers to work hard (their own admission) and pursue excellence.
Also we have managed to give a positive image of urban music and culture and UMP is associated with almost everyone who has made it for the past 10 years. Just to add if not too late: the 50:50 female in arts initiative also manifested itself during these awards. We increased the number of categories that were dichotomised in all the awards, fashion, music, and media.
Also, it gave a great platform for Krazy Colours the initiative’s brand ambassadors. The patronage at the venue was impressive despite our late announcement of the awards (remember we had initially announced we are skipping this year before our stance evolved) – and there were so many entertainment events that weekend – we held our own, our audience stayed till late. We delivered what we promoted and advertised.
Q
: Any future plans?
A
: We are happy with the ever growing impact the Awards are having in Malawi music and fashion.
What we wanted more – is more participation from stakeholders and corporates but we are expecting next year to be better. Also having the event on television was an additional layer of production activities – we appreciate our partners Mibawa who supported us to make this possible.
Q
: Give us a brief background of UMP Awards?
A
: UMP started as Urban Music Party at Grin Bamboo Park in Namiwawa in 2009.
This was a period where urban music started becoming mainstream music.
The awards were introduced as a promotional tool of Malawi’s urban music and culture…secondly it was to contribute to the growth of the music industry in the country which is now providing careers and livelihoods to many youth thereby diversifying socio economies opportunities for urban youths. For music awards this year, we had a voting college consisting of college entertainment committees, media institutions, music festivals, live music venues, and popular votes through social media voting. There were two rounds of voting: nominations and final voting. For fashion awards, we had a panel of judges- experts in Malawi’s fashion. For media awards, the fashion and music nominees did the voting.
