BY WINSTONE ANTONIO
ORGANISERS of the Zimbabwe Music Awards (Zima) yesterday said there would be more of public participation complemented by experts in the adjudication of the forthcoming awards. In an interview with NewsDay Life & Style yesterday, awards spokesperson Benjamin Nyandoro (pictured) said they would introduce a model that would ensure all interested artistes conveniently submit their works for the 2021 awards ceremony scheduled for February 6 next year.
Nyandoro said while there were queries by stakeholders about the last edition, the awards, which were making a comeback after a three-year sabbatical, would take note of those and progressively incorporate the feedback.
“It is with great pleasure that we inform our stakeholders that Zima 2021 is on. We are here to stay, February 6, 2021 will be a bigger, better and more glamorous ceremony. In this light, we call on all stakeholders to make things happen again as was the case in 2020. We shall be giving out more details soon,” he said.
“For the 2021 edition we are introducing an interesting model which will ensure that all interested artistes can conveniently submit their works. At the previous edition, we were excited to see young budding talent dominating the winners on the night and we are excited about the future as it is set to be more competitive.”
Nyandoro said they had finished implementing the “disruptive” system which entailed a number of issues, chief among them being the need not to open and close the nominations. “So valid dates of the Zima 2021 will be January 1 2020 to December 31 2020. We have put together a team that comprises five experts who are developing the rule book. We will be releasing our rule book with that component among many that will be very disruptive in the way we want to administer the Zima awards,” he said.
“We have also increased the number of awards that involve the public. We are going to get a lot more public participation on determination and the judging will be on qualitative elements from the experts, but if people are for and there is that significant participation that will determine the bulk of the awarding process. So the involvement of the people is one thing that we want to flag.”
Nyandoro said they were really excited about what artistes were doing during the current global COVID-19 induced lockdown.
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“Established and budding talents have released music this year, more promoters have emerged and new digital platforms enabling our music to be exported beyond. We look forward to an interesting awards night come February 6, 2021,” he said.
Reflecting on the eight months after the previous awards ceremony that had 32 categories, Nyandoro reaffirmed that they could have not done it without the support of all the stakeholders.
“It is difficult to host such an event without the support of the primary stakeholder. One of the most celebrated basketball players of all time, Michael Jordan said” ‘Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.’ It is this same attitude that underpinned the organisation of the Zimbabwe Music Awards 2020,” he said.
“We were encouraged and strengthened by the input that everyone gave us to ensure we produce a fitting event (Zima 2020 edition), celebrating the hard work musicians put in to give us the music we all love listening to daily.”
The last edition had budding Afro-pop artiste, Isheanesu “Ishan” Chigagura as the biggest winner of the night after he scoped three gongs (the Best Male Artiste of the Year, the Best Newcomer and the Best Afro-pop Musician) at a ceremony held at the Country Club in Newlands, Harare.
Among the winners were dancehall musician Freeman who scooped the Best Video (Ngaibake), Album of the Year (Gango) and Best Zimdancehall Artiste gongs.
Dancehall president Winky D scooped the Song of the Year award with Mugarden a duet with Gemma Griffiths after it got the highest number of public votes.
The late Chiwoniso Maraire and Simon Chimbetu posthumously won the Zimbabwe Icon Retro Artiste Award while Andy Brown clinched the Lifetime Achievement Award.
