Yemi Alade and Zambia’s Cleo nominated at 2016 AFRIMMA Awards

Now in its third edition, the award ceremony will be taking place in the US on 15 October. The stars of the continent will gather in Dallas, Texas to perform and be rewarded for a year of production. As is the case since inception, the categories at AFRIMMA are separated into regions.

Cleo was nominated in the Best Female Southern Africa category; she won this award last year and hopes to win it again this year. Other female artists in the category include South African artists Zonke, Busiswa and Lira. Others are Lizha James from Mozambique, Zimbabwe’s Pah Chihera, Nnunu Ramo Gotsy from Botswana and Chikune from Namibia.

Roberto was nominated in the Best Male Southern Africa category. He will be competing against South African artists AKA, DJ Bongz, Black Coffee, Emtee and Cassper Nyovest. Namibia's The Dogg and Vee Mampeezy from Botswana are also nominees. In a clear dominance of the region, South Africa receives five of the eight spots available in the category. Three South African female singers, including Lira, take up space in the female section, leaving seven spots to be filled by other countries in the region.

For west Africa, Nigeria is represented in the Best Male category by the popstar Wizkid and his rival and soon collaborator Davido. Rapper Olamide also receives a nomination. Ivory Coast’s Serge Beynaud Senegal’s Carlou D and Ghana’s most popular rapper Sarkodie are nominated as well. For female musicians, Tiwa Savage, whose album R.E.D was released last year, will be squaring up against Yemi Alade. Senegal’s Vivian Chidid and Ghana’s Efya join the two Nigerian popstars.

Cleo was nominated at the SA Hip Hop Awards back in 2012 and was second place in the reality show Big Brother (The Chase) in 2013. Her 15 track debut album Geminice was released in 2016. She has since dropped several other hit songs.

Her countryman Roberto is among the big names in the country’s music industry. His single ‘Mailo’ is still enjoying airplay in the country. He has enjoyed a number of accolades home and overseas, winning Song of The Year category at the Mosi Zambian Music Awards (ZMA) and the Pan African Song of the Year at the Namibian Annual Music Awards (NAMAs) held in Windhoek.

Nigeria puts up a good showing in the general categories. The west African country receives nominations in the Best DJ, Best Producer, Best Dancer and several other categories. The Best Dancer list sees the UK-based mixed race dancer Roxy Roberts nominated, perhaps because of her work with African artists. Her nationality is uncredited in the list.

The African Muzik Magazine Awards (AFRIMMA) are organised by the titular magazine and is described as the “biggest African music awards in the diaspora”. The October ceremony is to be hosted and co-hosted by Nigerian comedian Basketmouth and American model and reality television star Cynthia Bailey.

Full list of nominees below: