2020 AFRIMAs cancelled

First held in 2014, the awards are organised by the International Committee of AFRIMA in partnership with the African Union to celebrate outstanding musical work on the continent while promoting African cultural heritage.

The five-day event traditionally comprises an all-night live concert known as the AFRIMA Music Village, the Africa Music Business Summit, a tour of the host city, and the main awards ceremony. Last year, the ceremony was held at the Eko Convention Centre in Lagos, with West African stars Burna Boy, Wizkid, 2Baba and Stonebwoy among the night’s biggest winners.

The organisers say the decision to reschedule this year’s event followed months of monitoring the pandemic and careful stakeholder consultations. The event is expected to make a return in 2021.

“Many of our awards nominees and delegates travel from different parts of the continent and from other parts of the globe to Africa for each edition, and fully understanding the risks involved with such movements, the suspension of the 2020 edition of the AFRIMAs is the only prudent course for us,” they said.

“We work day and night each year to ensure we provide a world-class and safe awards event. Now we are focusing all of our efforts on making our future events even better. We hope that the world will be able to take adequate action and that the spread of the virus will soon be contained.”

The organisers added that rescheduling the awards would allow for “improved planning and better harnessing of new digital trends in the curation of concerts, conferences and festivals, all of which form part of the annual AFRIMA awards calendar.“

Previous well-known AFRIMA winners include South African rapper Nasty C, Nigeria’s Yemi Alade and Tiwa Savage, Ghana’s Wiyaala and KiDi, Congolese singer-songwriter Fally Ipupa, and a host of others.