adminMelissa Mpofu/Rumbidzai Mbewe
AFRICANS take pride in talent and skill that this continent possesses. In honour of fellow African women and men who have shone and kept people in their dancing shoes, Mtv Base will hold the Mtv African Music Awards (MAMAs) tonight. The awards will be held in South Africa for the first time at the Durban International Convention Centre to celebrate the most popular contemporary music in Africa. The awards ceremony which will be hosted by American comedian Marlon Wayans will air live tonight across Africa on DStv’s Mtv Base and Mtv channels.
The event will be graced by many popular artistes and other people who have made a great impact in Africa in both music and non-music circles.
What is disheartening however is that not a single Zimbabwean artiste will receive any of the awards which are in 15 categories and again no Zimbabwean artiste will grace the awards ceremony. Is the Zimbabwean music failing to meet the grade or is it a problem of artistes not being visible on the continent?
Zimbabwe is obviously missing at the awards because the local music is not played on Mtv. Why their music is not played on that station remains the big question considering that submitting music to that station is quite a simple process.
For years, Buffalo Souljah has been the only Zimbabwean artiste who has been putting the country on the map. He has won a number of Channel O awards. Souljah has time and again urged locals to produce quality videos and submit them to Channel O and Mtv for airplay but his appeal seems to have fallen on deaf ears as only one artiste, Nox, has done so and has one of his music videos receiving airplay on Channel O. Local artistes though they perform outside the country’s borders, need to do more to market themselves internationally.
Oliver “Tuku” Mtukudzi remains one of the few musicians who have gone international as his brand has gone places. Local artistes including dancehall and urban grooves have performed in South Africa and UK countless times but are yet to establish themselves internationally because they mostly perform for Zimbabweans in the two countries.
In an interview, some of the local artistes pointed that Zimbabwean music was of poor quality saying artistes needed to improve on their music in order for their work to be recognised and compete on the African continent.
Urban grooves artiste Alexio Gwenzi aka Goodchild said there was a need for artistes in Zimbabwe to perfect their products to meet international standards. “Our music is a bit sub-standard. Look at the way dancehall music in the country is being produced. Not taking anything away from them, but the quality of their music is substandard,” he said.
He said in most cases artistes had no managers resulting in them doing everything.
“They are their own managers and producers which makes it difficult for them to notice any mistakes in their productions,” he said.
Goodchild said another challenge was that Zimbabwean music was not receiving airplay on big stations in other countries as was the case with musicians from South Africa, Nigeria and Zambia.
South Africa based award-winning dancehall artiste, Buffalo Souljah (real name Thabani Ndlovu) said Zimbabweans needed to support their local artistes and music first before the artistes think of going international.
“It’s funny how people in Zimbabwe prefer to buy American, Nigerian and South African music albums instead of buying their own local music which has lyrics specifically penned for them.
“Nigerians and South Africans are successful because of the hype that is built on their music by the local fans,” said Souljah.
Playwright and director, Raisedon Baya said there were artistes from Zimbabwe who were doing well in the region, but they were unfortunately not being noticed.
“The politics of audiences and support is that Africa is Nigeria and South Africa. Perhaps it is about who is sponsoring the awards and what the agenda is. We have people like No Violet Bulawayo who are doing well out there and are not even mentioned,” said Baya.
Channel O producers said if Zimbabwean musicians are to win awards, they should start focusing more on producing music videos rather than audios. Channel O Africa manager Leslie Kasumba once said most Zimbabwean artistes were focusing more on audio which only reaches a few people compared to videos.
She gave an example of Nigeria’s group P Square saying they were unknown before they released one music video which became an instant hit via Channel O. From there, they worked on more videos and they are now one of Africa’s best music groups.
South Africa and Nigerian artistes are again dominating this year’s MAMAs.
Some of the artistes nominated include Nigeria’s Davido, Tiwa Savage, P-Square, Ice Prince and WizKid, South Africa’s Uhuru, Oskido, Mafikizolo, Micasa, Donald, Dr Malinga and DJ Ganyani, as well as Lupita Nyong’o from Kenya, Diamond from Tanzania and Sarkodie from Ghana.
The star-studded ceremony will feature performances from artistes such as Miguel, Trey Songz, Flavour N’abania, French Montana, Tiwa Savage, Davido, Mafikizolo, Uhuru, Oskido, Professor, Diamond Platnumz, Wizkid, Phyno, Yuri Da Cunha, Sauti Sol, Sarkodie, The Arrows, Khuli Chana and Dr SID.
Zimbabwe will at least be represented at the awards by three StarFm and Zifm DJs Sam “MisRed” Mussa, Zandile “Zaza” Ndlovu and Napoleon “Napstar” Nyanhi who will be covering the event for their respective radio stations.
Online Reporter