The African Union (AU) and the International Committee of the All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA unveiled the Nominees’ list (regional category) for its 6th edition at a World Media Conference on Wednesday, August 14, 2019, at the Abora Hall, of Eko Hotels & Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria

With an array of music industry professionals, artiste and music journalist in attendance to witness the unveiling of 2019 Nominees’ list for Regional and Continental category emerged from the 8,157 songs/videos received as entries from its online portal which closed earlier on August 2, 2019. The unveiling event was broadcast on African Independent Television (AIT), RayPower Fm and Kennis Music FM as the remaining 25 continental categories will be released on Friday, August 23, 2019 after auditing by the International auditors of AFRIMA.

The Regional category for Best Female Artistes and Best Male Artistes of the five regions (Western, Southern, Eastern, Northern, and Central Africa) have been thoroughly selected from the entries to reveal artiste who will be competing at the 2019 awards ceremony.

This year’s list showcases a wide range of creativity and talents both from new and known artiste across the regions. Artiste like Shatta Wale, Kizz Daniel, Salif Keita, Burna Boy will be competing for the Best Male category in Western Africa, while Teniola, Simi, Aya Nakamura, Mzvee, Yemi Alade amongst others will be competing for the Best Female category in Western Africa. Dominating Central Africa include Cameroonian artiste Blanche Baily, Charlotte Dipanda, Daphne alongside their male counterpart Locko, Magasco and Salatiel.

For Eastern Africa; we have great contenders including Sheebah from Uganda; Vanessa Mdee from Tanzania; Nikita Kering from Kenya with Tanzanian Diamond platinum, Rayvanny, Mboso, and Kenyan Khaligraph Jones and Nyashinski.

Moroccan Yann'Sine, Ahmed Soultan, Amiinux, and Algerian Soolking with Cairokee from Egypt, Salma Rachid from Morocco will be battling it out in the Northern region for Best Male and Female category.

A huge representation for South African artiste as they hold sway over the Southern African region for both Male and Female categories. These artistes include AKA, Nasty C, Cassper Nyovest, Sjava, Black Coffee, Kelly Khumalo, Zonke, Nadia Nakai among others. Amara Brown, Tamy Moyo, Jah Prayzah, and Winky D also lock down few spots for Zimbabwe in the Southern regional category.

The Continental category comprising of different genres of music will be released Friday, August 23rd following an auditing process from the international auditors of AFRIMA.

Drawing from their pool of experience and professionalism, the 13-man jury, guided by the AFRIMA acronym FACEIT which stands for Fairness, Authenticity, Creativity, excellence, Integrity, and Transparency underwent a week-long process of thoroughly screening, categorising, assessing, and grading from the thousands of entries in order to arrive at the best reflection of rich and creative talents embedded in African music, reviewed songs were produced between the period of August 1, 2018, to August 2, 2019.

Mr. Chris Syren, representing Southern Africa, speaking on behalf of the AFRIMA jury, gave a report on their activities including the tireless and assiduous process they had to embark upon during adjudication, the quality of works received, criteria for selection, and the voting process. He commended AFRIMA for its sense of inclusiveness and unity at leading the conversation of using music as a tool for integration and shared prosperity in Africa. The Head of Culture, Africa Union, Mrs. Angela Martins, via a video conference expressed her excitement of this year’s AFRIMA, its capacity to promote the African culture positively as well as called for more support for the continental initiative.

The AFRIMA online voting platform is set to open to the public on Sunday, September 1 and will run till November 22, where both continental and regional nominees in the 36 AFRIMA awarding categories will compete against one another for the coveted 23.9 carats gold-plated AFRIMA Trophy.

Nominees will depend on their fans and followers spread across the globe to vote for them in an open voting process via the AFRIMA website, www.afrima.org

The 2019 AFRIMA ceremony scheduled to hold on November 20-23, 2019 during a four-day fiesta of music, glamour, Afrocentricism and entertainment in the official awards Host City will commence with the Welcome Soiree followed by the AFRIMA Music Village, the Host City Tour, the Africa Music Business Summit, the exclusive Nominees Party and concludes with the live Awards Ceremony.

Fans of African music globally can follow along and take part in the AFRIMA 2019 events on social media, live stream on the AFRIMA website, the AFRIMA App and by tuning to over 84 television stations which are AFRIMA partners.

•Photo shows, L-R: AFRIMA International Jury members Mr. Olisa Adibua, Juror Western Africa; Mr. Delani Makhalima Juror, Southern Africa; Ms. Rita Ray, Juror Europe Diaspora; Mr. Chris Syren, Juror, Southern Africa; Mr. Robert Ekukole, Juror, Central Africa; Mr. Charles Tabu, Juror, Central Africa; Ms. Zineb Seyad, Northern Africa; Mr. Tabu Osusa, Juror Eastern Africa; Mr. Joett, Juror, Eastern Africa and Ms. Adenrele Niyi, Associate Producer, AFRIMA, during the World Conference Announcement of the 6th All Africa Music Awards Nominees list held on Wednesday, August 14, 2019, at the Eko Hotels and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos.

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