BY SINDISO DUBE
ORGANISERS of the prestigious Zimbabwe Music Awards (Zima) have said they are ready to host this year’s edition of the awards following a four-year sabbatical.
The awards received more than a thousand submissions for this year’s ceremony when entries closed on the last day of 2019.
The organisers said the adjudication process is now underway and they will release the list of nominees on January 11, just two weeks before the ceremony, set for January 25.
Themed Celebrating 16 Years of Musical Excellence and Creativity, the ceremony will be held at the Country Club in Newlands, Harare.
Awards spokesperson Benjamin Nyandoro said the four-year break was necessary and they were ready to make it big this year.
“This is one of the biggest awards ceremonies in the country and we have been preparing for it. The time is here to do it big. I believe the four-year sabbatical was necessary because it gave us time to rethink and also interrogate ourselves on how these awards should be done. We asked ourselves pertinent questions and also have set up structures that enable the awards to be held annually without any break,” he said.
Following the announcement of PPC Zimbabwe as the headline sponsor, Zima chief executive Reason Sibanda urged more companies to come on board.
“We are happy and excited to announce our partnership with PPC Zimbabwe as our headline sponsor. This is an important gesture and we encourage other companies to step up and sponsor individual awards,” he said.
The top five awards will be Best Female Artiste of the Year, Best Male Artiste of the Year, Best Group/Duo of the Year, Best Newcomer of the Year and Best Album of the Year.
Other awards will be for Zimdancehall, sungura, Afro pop, Hip hop, contemporary gospel, traditional gospel, RnB & soul, Jazz, Dance (house/gqom/kwaito/edm), tshibilika, and traditional (folk/ezomdabu/imbube) genres.
Technical awards for Producer of the Year, Engineer of the Year, Best Music Video and Best Videographer will also be included.
Special awards will also be given for Best Collaboration, Best DJ (radio/club), Best Promoter, Best International Zimbabwe Artiste and Best Corporate Sponsor.
