The MTV Africa Music Awards MAMA 2016 is hyped as one of Africa’s premier events. Set in the City of Gold Johannesburg, the event is to take place on the 22nd of October, at the Ticketpro Dome. With an impressive run up of events before the award night, the MAMAs have been created quite the buzz across various cities on the continent. The final nominee list was presented at the Hard Rock Cafe in Lagos, Nigeria on the 2nd of October with a few surprise artists making the list. Apart from the typical categories like Best Male, some categories like Best Breakthrough, Best Francophone, Best Lusophone and Best Video of the Year indicate the growth of the music industry in Africa.
With different genres and languages, the African music awards will be a celebration of Africa’s best and a platform to showcase what the continent has to offer the world. The list of nominees has a large number of nominees from West Africa with artists from Nigeria like Wizkid gaining 6 nominations leading the pack and a surprise nomination for Liberian Den G for Listener’s Choice Award.
South African Hip Hop heavyweights also feature on the coveted list with Cassper Nyovest, AKA, Khuli Chana. Lesser known artist Emtee also landed a nomination for Best Hip Hop. Kenya’s Sauti Sol carry the nation’s award dreams being the only Kenyans nominated for awards. Having landed 4 nominations including Best Group and scheduled to perform on the MAMAs stage, Sauti Sol is set for a good night. Other performers to rock the stage also include Emtee, Future, Yemi Alade and Bongo star Ali Kiba. To vote check our the guidelines here.
With such a large event, some things are bound to go contrary to expectations. Trevor Noah, a South African comedian slated to host the show and fell ill, cancelling his hosting gig for Africa’s biggest night in music. However, fellow South African Bonang Matheba has been selected to fill in for Africa’s biggest funny man. The show is set to air on 22October MTV Base on DStv channel 322 from 10p.m.
