IT was a similar story after this year’s Zambian Music Awards (ZAMA) that saw Slap D emerge the biggest winner of the night, as some artistes complained of being dribbled.
Despite the staging being world-class, the awards need serious amendments with how nominees are selected and how the voting should be done.
The world most successful music awards, the Grammy, have a selection team that comes up with nominees and winners.
There are a few complaints on the judges’ final decision because of the calibre and integrity of the selection team.
If Zambian Breweries Plc and National Arts Council (NAC) wish to continue with the same criteria they are currently using for selecting winners and nominees, they need to go flat out in educating the public on how to vote and nominate their favourite artistes.
Prior to the awards, I received a call from a young music fan who wanted to find out how to vote for his favourite artiste, I did not have the artistes’ category number and his code, as such, could not help the poor man.
Another young man pleaded with me to help him on how to go about SMS voting as he didn’t have Internet facilities to vote online.
I was privileged to have an opportunity to read about the awards in the Press but more work needs to be done to cater for young people who have no time to read the paper or listen to the radio.
My phone was constantly buzzing after the awards: Some young people were accusing me of vote-rigging.
I tried to explain that I am just a journalist who was writing about the awards and not part of the organising committee, alas I had already received the insults.
NAC needs to come up with another criterion for nominations then they can leave the voting to the public with serious publicity campaigns.
The number of nominees in each category should not be restricted to three.
Voters need a variety of options while artists also need competition.
A good example of well organised awards is the Channel O Music Video Awards where votes are determined by viewers who are well informed throughout the voting period as nominations are done by a panel of experts.
When it comes to voting, voters need to be educated adequately with information on their finger tips and given all the necessary materials.
Slap D’s legion of fans come from Lusaka city where many youths have opportunities in Information Technology while Macky II’s fans mostly come from the Copperbelt where the situation is different.
With the competition between the two artists, some youths took it personal and voted in numbers with the advantageous group emerging victorious.
There was no foul play or vote rigging, but lack of education and publicity on how to vote on different platforms.
Here is what Macky 2 had to say after missing out on the winners list this year; “I am not as young as I used to be. When people grow up they put away all childish things. Talk is cheap it’s time to act! I am not going to complain or say it was unfair, no. And in case you were wondering.. No am not going to do a song about it.”
“I don’t want anyone to give me anything on a silver plate. I earned everything I have accomplished in my life. If people feel I don’t deserve any awards for what I was nominated for, then that’s that!
I really have no problem with someone beating me.
All I ask for is let the guy I am fighting with over something to beat me fair and square. Oh! And you are so small minded if you still on that Lusaka vs Kopala thing, it’s just Zambian music!
And I have said this before, whether we like it or not!
This Zambian music and those are the Zambian Music Awards, it’s all we have and we need to support, encourage and get involved in it, that’s the only way we can fix this broken thing.”
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Last week I was glued to Channel O watching Hit Factory segment where they show potential hit songs, I must admit that I was impressed beyond measures when they showed JK’s new music video Telemundo.
The video produced by Ashtrey is world class and artists should be encouraged by that production to invest if their videos and music has to cross borders.
Channel O is Africa’s leading music video channel and looking at the frequency the Telemundo video is being  showed, there is hope that JK alias Jordan Katembula is with no doubt a force to reckon with on the African continent.
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In effort to help reduce road carnages, this column will every week give a road safety tip to road users that include Pedestrians, cyclists and motorists as well.
ROAD SAFETY TIP: Always ensure that you put on a seat belt whenever you are in a moving vehicle, regardless where you are sitting. Without a seatbelt things can get ugly in case of an emergency brake.
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