For the first time in the history of local music, Northern Region artists will today enjoy a limelight under the newly introduced Mzuzu Music Awards. The awards event is slated for Grand Palace Hotel this evening. Our Staff Reporter BRIAN ITAI caught up with one of the event’s organisers Burnet Malunga who shares the concept behind the event. Excerpts.

American-based artist Delois Massey performing at the Maso Awards which also honoured artists

Q

: What is your name and your role in the organisation?

A

: I am Burnet Malunga, a member of the organising team for Mzuzu Music Awards. I am responsible for coordinating financing and sponsorship of the event.

Q

: What is the area of focus in these awards?

A

: Mzuzu Music Awards has been launched to recognise and celebrate the creative industry in the Northern Region. The awards are aimed at recognising, promoting and motivating creatives in the Northern Region for their contribution in the year 2022. The awards are also meant to connect and link the creative industry with the corporate world working in the region. It is also meant to allow the community to value arts as one of the fundamental aspects of society.

Q

: From the name, should we conclude the awards will solely focus on music?

A

: The awards will not only focus on music, but rather arts as a whole. Since it is the first event, we decided to start with music categories.

Q

: Why did you find it important to organise awards that are just focusing on artists from the Northern Region?

A

: Musicians in the Northern Region have over the years been producing good art (music), but they have not been recognised both regionally and nationally. We felt like if something could be organised at regional level, it would motivate and inspire musicians. We also felt like we ourselves need to first start recognising and appreciating the artists. That way we could show and give them a platform to be recognised.

Q

: What proof do you have that artists from the Northern Region are sidelined during national awards?

A

: It’s not sidelining as such. We cannot assume the artists are being sidelined from here. All awards happening at national level have processes which include nominating individuals and voting for the nominees. Despite having outstanding performers every year, creatives from here have not been able to make it lists of nominees or winners. That can be attributed to many reasons, including inadequate nominations to make the list. That is why one of our key concepts when coming up with the awards was inspire the Northern Region community to recognise and celebrate the creative industry just like other aspects of the community.

Q

: Which categories will be recognised during the awards?

A

: The awards will celebrate outstanding performances in 11 categories. These are Artist of the Year, Song of the Year, Upcoming Artist of the Year, Producer of the Year, Dancehall/Reggae Artist of the Year, RnB/Afro Artist of the Year, Hip hop Artist of the Year, Cypher of The Year, Music Video of the Year, Videographer of the Year and the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Q

: How are you progressing with the organisation of the awards so far?

A

: Securing sponsorship is the biggest challenge we are facing right now. We have Grand Palace Hotel which has played a big role in supporting the event and is providing the venue. We also have a few institutions, which have helped us with sponsorship including Centre For Youth Development, Agri-digital Hub, Blackview Mobile and Queens Club. On top of that Baobab Entertainment International has committed to provide a full year global music distribution deal through its platform to winners of each category. We are still appealing for support of the event.

Q

: Going forward, what are your plans to ensure sustainability of the awards?

A

: We are planning to have the event every year, and to achieve that we will ensure early preparations and initiating activities that will champion arts. We are also embarking on collaborating with various stakeholders as a way of improving effectiveness. This year we have not been able to achieve some of these things because of limited resources and sponsorship. We will have strategies in place to fundraise resources in the subsequent events. n

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