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| The hosts for the evening. Nigeria's Banky W & South Africa's Dineo Moeketsi. |
Last night the Channel O Music Video Awards were held in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Channel O is one of the top satellite t.v. channels in Africa.
Like other international music award shows, the Channel O Music Video Awards is held annually. It awards contemporary African artists who are at the top of their game. Winners are chosen by the African public through a voting system.
The show itself, and the production, were 10 times better than last year. The hosts were better, the organisation and programme was greatly improved, and it went off without a glitch, unlike last year’s show.
But, a lot of people, us included, were shocked at some of the results. Artists that have really taken the continent by storm this year went home empty handed. The biggest disappointments were Cabo Snoop from Angola, and Flavour from Nigeria, who won nothing. But they are undoubtedly two of the biggest African stars right now. Another artist who has done big things but failed to get an award was Nigeria’s Wizkid.
Let’s just say the results were very anti-climatic. Since the results were determined by the voting public, it may be that people just voted for the artists that they have been fans of for a long time. They didn’t vote for the new kids on the block. For example, in the Best Africa South Category (best artists from Southern Africa) one would have assumed that the winner would have been Cabo Snoop, who is fairly new on the scene. But the award went to South Africa’s Liquideep, who have been around for a few years.
But one newcomer did win one of the biggest categories. AKA of South Africa won Most Gifted Hip-Hop Video.
But, there were some results that were not really surprising. D’Banj who has been signed to American superstar Kanye West’s music label won Most Gifted Male Video. He also received the Special Recognition Award for putting Africa on the international map.
And Nigerian Ice Prince walked away with the Most Gifted Newcomer award.
The best performances of the night were the Mozambique’s dance queen Lizha James and Cabo Snoop. Flavour had all the women close to fainting from excitement. And Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage, Kenya’s Stella and Uganda’s Keko truly did African women proud.
Very few African women were nominated. And only 2 won, Keko for Best African East and South Africa’s Lira for Most Gifted female. This has nothing to do with Channel O or the voting public though. A lot of female African artists are not on the same level as their male counterparts. Their music and video production is not as good. This is not the women’s fault though. The industry does not put as much money into creating, developing and marketing women artists, unlike in Western countries. But, the women who are on the same level as the men are really killing it. If only the industry would pay them the same respect and give them the same opportunities.
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| Flavour had the women falling out of their seats. |
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| One of the biggest winners on the night, Zakes Bantwini |
