The African Union Commission, AUC, has formally unveiled the 2017 All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, calendar on Tuesday, May 2, 2017, at The Maslow Hotel, Sandton, South Africa.
The ceremony was attended by AU officials, members of the International Committee of AFRIMA, past AFRIMA winners and nominees from Southern African, media executives in Southern Africa and other stakeholders in the creative/entertainment industry in Africa.
During the unveiling, President/Executive Producer, AFRIMA, Mr. Mike Dada, made known that the first activity on the continental awards event calendar is submission of entries which open globally on Monday, May 8 and submission closes on Monday, July 17, 2017.
Dada advised artistes, managers, producers, record label owners, video directors, publicists and entertainment/music journalist to submit their works or those of their artistes within the stipulated timeline in order to stand a chance at the awards.
“Irrespective of how popular an artiste or their works are in Africa, failure to submit for the awards means their chances of being nominated for AFRIMA 2017 is practically non-existent,” Dada pointed out.
Other activities at the event calendar are; the jury adjudication process and nominees selection from July 29 to August 7 at Harare, Zimbabwe; world media announcement of AFRIMA 2017 Nominees’ list, August 8 at Harare, Zimbabwe; turn up Africa concept between August and October; the Africa music village, November 10, at the host city; finally the main awards ceremony in November 12.
While delivering the African Union opening address at the event, Head of Culture Division, African Union Commission, Ms. Angela Martins, thanked the government of the Republic of South Africa and the people for receiving the AUC and AFRIMA for the calendar unveiling.
She added: “We would like to hail the All Africa Music Awards initiative for the laudable impact it has for its three editions (2014, 2015 and 2016). AFRIMA has been able to mobilize millions of people and renowned artistes from the five regions of Africa.”
Some of the attendees during the unveiling were African music stars such as: Wax Dey; Sjava; Buffalo; Mi Casa; Busiswa; The Soil; Heavy K; Ugly Priddy and Cindy Munyavi.
