By Olu Victor
The race is about to begin in the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), as organisers open the ‘doors’ for the submission of entries for musical works across Africa for the 2014 edition.
Officials of the International Committee of AFRIMA, a continental showpiece to celebrate the rich musical heritage of Africa and her talented artistes who revealed this recently said entries will be opened from May 15, 2014 to July 5, 2014.
Those eligible to contest in the 30 categories of the Awards, according to AFRIMA are music professionals of African origin, living either on the continent or abroad. They include artistes, songwriters, video directors, music producers and music journalists as well as unrecorded artistes who can upload their songs/videos on YouTube.
Organisers say works to be submitted must be produced in the year under review –May 31, 2013 to July 4, 2014.
Endorsed by the African Union (AU), detailed information about eligibility and format of submission is available on www.afrima.org. Applicants are expected to complete the registration form on the website and other AFRIMA social media platforms such as Twitter: @AFRIMAWARDS and Facebook.
AFRIMA Regional Director, Central Africa, Mr Ernest Ewane, who spoke on the composition of the academy said, “the Jury comprises of 13 people who have spent reasonable amount of years in the music industry and have vast knowledge in music, who do not perform or produce songs anymore and people who are well respected in the industry across Africa and Diaspora. They are professionals with impeccable understanding of music”.
According to the Awards’ Co-Producer/Regional Director East Africa, Mr. Mike Strano, “After the Jury has performed the duty of selecting qualified nominations; it collapses into the Academy which consists of 527 members to vote for the categories. In this process of selecting nominees and eventual winners of the coveted award trophy, AFRIMA is very keen to uphold its FACE IT value which stands for Fairness, Accountability, Creativity, Excellence, Integrity and Transparency. The task of the International Committee of AFRIMA is to ensure that the Academy is not biased along ethnicity, region or age lines in terms of composition. So, there will be equal representation for all music genres.”
The 2014 All Africa Music Awards will produce a star-studded, world-class event in Nigeria on October 21 to 25, 2014, with live performances and television broadcast to 84 countries on 109 television stations around the world.
Image: /www.afrima.org