KELVIN KACHINGWE, Lusaka
THE All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), inaugurated last year with the objective of uniting Africans through the celebration of excellence in music, on Wednesday unveiled its calendar of events for this year.
AFRIMA and the African Union Commission unveiled the 2015 calendar for the continental awards project at a cultural and media conference on Wednesday at the AU secretariat in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
This year’s awards ceremony will be held on November 8, 2015. Last year awards, at which Zambian singer Mampi was a finalist, was held in Nigeria. The ceremony was hosted by Nigeria’s international music star, 2Face Idibia and co-hosted by Maryse Acotie, a bilingual radio and TV personality from Togo.
African artistes should submit their audio or video entry using download links to YouTube, SoundCloud or other compatible music platforms to qualify for nomination in award categories relevant to their artistic work. Entry submission will open on AFRIMA website immediately after the International Committee of AFRIMA announces the “Call For Entry” process in the public media (print, TV, radio, online) across Africa and overseas.
AFRIMA is a combined effort to recognize and award, promote and preserve Africa’s rich music culture. Debates, ideas, strategies took place over the last three years to identify a gap in the market place and most importantly to close that gap and to also to create a brand that will truly live up to the expectations of its internal and external stakeholders. Deliberations and conferencing included regional directors and strategists from all the regions of the continent.
Elaborating on launch of the AFRIMA 2015 calendar in Addis Ababa, Mike Dada, the director of the culture department at the AU said: “The joint cultural and media conference organised by the African Union Commission and AFRIMA in Addis Ababa is taking African entertainment and positioning/ strategy to the next level and also consolidating the existing relationship between us.
“It is a privilege to have the AU believe in our dream for Africa and African music. The conference in Ethiopia will afford us the opportunity to officially present the winners of the 2014 edition of the awards to the Commission.”
Some of the winners of AFRIMA last year include Fally Ipupa (DR Congo), Vanessa Mdee (Tanzania), Angelique Kidjo (Benin), Davido (Nigeria), P-Square (Nigeria),  Radio and Weasel (Uganda) and  Fela Kuti (Nigeria), who received the legendary award.