By JOWIT SALUSEKI –

WITH no Zambian musicians being nominated in the 2014 Channel O Africa Music Video Awards, a cross-section of fans have expressed mixed feelings on the quality of music videos that are being produced by local artistes.
Last year, youthful outfit Zone Fam made history when they bagged an award for the first time at the annual music video awards.
In an interview with DStv entertainment, Christabel Chimbali attributed the poor quality of some music videos to the failure of Zambian music to make a cut on this year’s list of nominees.
“The funny thing in Zambia is that we have being appreciating mediocre music videos as ‘hits’ …sometimes these musicians just want to make a quick name and money in the industry. They rush the production of their videos at the expense of engaging professionals who can critically help them come up with quality material capable of competing at an international stage.
Sometimes a song can have good audio lyrics but when you watch the video for the same song you will find that it is really poor and of very low quality,” observed Christabel.
Abigail Kasungulu says although some Zambian music videos were of low quality, there are some artistes like Jordan Katembula – alias JK – and others whose videos meet international standards.
“I think it’s a little bit unfair to say all videos that these musicians are producing in Zambia are of sub-standard and therefore cannot compete at international level.
“When you look at the videos that JK has been producing of late, they are better than some of those that have been nominated this year from Nigeria and South Africa,” says Abigail.
Webster Simfunkwe says the fact that no Zambian artiste has made it on the shortlist of nominees should worry the Zambia Association of Musicians (ZAM) and every individual artiste as well as the fans concerning the quality of videos been churned out on the market.
According to the list of nominees for the 2014 Channel O Africa Music Awards which was announced on September 4, 2014 in Johannesburg, South Africa’s Cassper Nyovest and K.O dominate this year’s nominations, with Nigeria’s Davido matching their five nomination each.
Nyovest is nominated for the Most Gifted Male Video, Most Gifted New Comer, Most Gifted Hip Hop Video, Most Gifted Southern Video as well as Most Gifted Video of the Year categories for Doc Shebeleza.
Davido represents West Africa with nominations for Aye in the categories of Most Gifted Male Video, Afro Pop Video, Most Gifted West Video, and Most Gifted Video of the Year, while Skelewu earned him the Most Gifted Dance Video nominations.
Teargas’s Caracara starring K.O is currently one of the most popular songs played on international radio and television stations.
South Africa’s K.O makes his nominee debut as a solo artist in the categories of Most Gifted Male Video, Most Gifted Duo/Group or
Featuring Video, Most Gifted Hip Hop, Most Gifted Southern Video and Most Gifted Video of the Year.
Notable African artistes who have been nominated in different categories include diva Tiwa Savage, featuring Don Jazzy for the smash hit Eminado, P-Square for the track Personally, Nigeria’s 2face Idibia featuring T-Pain for Rainbow, Mozambique’s Lizha James featuring Uhuru for the song Quem Ti Mandou.
Others include Mafikizolo featuring May D for the track Happiness, AKA for the number Congratulate, Orezi for the song Rihanna and Emmy Gee featuring AB Crazy and DJ Dimplez for the track Rands and Nairas.
Voting which stated on September 7 and ends on November 23, 2014 .
Music video fans can cast their vote by visiting www.channelo.tv and WeChat, with fans being allowed to vote up to 100 times on both platform.
The Channel O Africa Music Awards takes place on November 29, 2014 at Nasrec Expo Centre in Soweto, South Africa.