Public voting for the African Union Commission (AUC) and the International Committee of All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) commences tomorrow, Monday.
The organisers had released the 2021 nominees list from the 8, 880 songs submitted for adjudication. The AFRIMA Awards is scheduled to hold from November 19-21 in Lagos.
Ayodeji Balogun (Wizkid) tops Nigerian artistes with six nominations with his hit song, ‘Essence’ featuring Tems, in the categories of ‘Artiste of the Year in Africa’, ‘Best Male Artist in Western Africa’ and ‘Album of the Year’. His other nominations are ‘Best African Collaboration’, ‘Song of the Year in Africa’, and ‘Best Artiste, Duo or Group in African R n B Soul’.
“Nigeria’s sensation Omah Lay has four nominations in ‘Artiste of the Year in Africa’; ‘Best Artiste in Western Africa’; ‘Best Artiste, Duo or Group in African Pop’ and ‘Breakout Artiste of the Year’ categories,” the statement read, adding that Davido also had four nominations.
South Africa’s duo, Blaq Diamond, led the 2021 nominations with eight nominations for their song, ‘SummerYoMuthi.’
The statement quoted a member of the 13-man AFRIMA International Jury, representing Diaspora (USA) & West Africa (Guinea), Hadja Kobele, saying, “We believe we gave Africans and the world the very best nominations and songs in line with the 8,880 songs received under the year in review.”
“The nominees’ list comprising 28 continental award categories and 10 regional award categories released for public voting on www.afrima.org is coming a few days after a rigorous long-week adjudication process. The remaining two categories – Legend award category will be announced at the awards, while Best Soundtrack in a movie/series/documentary film category was suspended due to low-quality entries for this year’s edition,” Head of Culture, African Union Commission on the Jury, Angela Martins, said in the statement.
