Organisers of the All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, 2021 edition has announced the commencement of public voting to choose the best musician on the African continent.

Maureen Ihua-Maduenyi said in a statement made available to the media that voting for the 400 categories of songs selected for the AFRIMA 2021 awards began since September.

According Ihua-Maduenyi, AFRIMA received over 8,800 songs as entries which were screened down to 400 songs by the Jury into continental and regional categories

cutting across African talents and creatives living on the continent and in the Diaspora.

Full text of her statement reads: “Fans and lovers of African music worldwide have been given the opportunity to decide winners in the 38 categories of the All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA 2021. Voting commenced globally on Monday, September 27, 2021 at 18:00 (EAT) and will end on Saturday, November 20, 2021 at 00:00 (CAT).

“The process of voting for artistes is conducted on the official AFRIMA website. To participate, voters are expected to visit https://ww.afrima.org or use the direct URL: https://afrima.org/AFRIMA2021voting to navigate to the voting platform. Returning voters can login with the appropriate details to access the voting platform while new users should click on the “create account” option and fill in the details ensuring they remember the username and password as it would be required for future login. Upon successful login to the voting platform, voters will find the dashboard area where the impact of voting engagement is displayed as well as a unique shareable URL.

“The unique shareable URL enables voters to acquire more votes when they share on social platforms and can be used for any artiste in any category. On the Regional and Continental

categories menu, voters are expected to select the appropriate category to vote.

“Every voter upon sign up, will be entitled to three vote counts daily per artiste in each of the 38 categories of the Awards. More vote counts can be acquired/accumulated based on engagement with the unique shareable URL found on the fans/voters’ dashboard.

“Winners will be determined by 100% public votes in some categories while a combination of 50% public votes and 50% of Academy of Voters’ votes will determine winners in other categories.

“AFRIMA International Academy of Voters comprises professionals in the music industry in Africa – musicologist, producers, veteran artistes, artiste managers, music/entertainment journalists and DJs, among others.

“The International Committee of AFRIMA has 100% votes to select the winner in the ‘Legend Award’ category. Past winners in this category are Afrobeat legend, the Late Fela Anikulapo Kuti (Nigeria); South African male choral group, Ladysmith Black Mambazo; Soul Makossa and saxophonist, Manu Dibango (Cameroon); the Late Oliver Mtukudzi (Zimbabwe); Salif Keita (Mali); Yvonne Chaka Chaka (South Africa); King Sunny

Ade (Nigeria); and Papa Wemba (Congo).

“In partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC), AFRIMA 2021 will be broadcast live on 84 television stations in 109 countries from Eko Hotels and Suites, Lagos, Nigeria from November 19 - 21, 2021.

“Since 2014, AFRIMA has been regarded as the ultimate recognition of African music globally.”

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