Namibia: NAMAs announce judges, introduce new category

The judging panel comprises individuals drawn from music, entertainment and media industries. The list includes: Morgan Heritage (US/Jamaica), Yvonne Chaka Chaka (South Africa), Sean Watson (South Africa), Sammy Forson (Ghana), Somoina Kimojino (Kenya), Sammy Thuo (Kenya) and Jasmine Dotiwala (UK). Locals that made it into the list are: Axali Doeseb, Alma Ulamba, Lischen Khachas and Che Ulenga.

“The NAMAs 2019 are building again on the event's past successes and stepping it up again this year on all fronts, including the stellar line-up of judges confirmed to assess and score all of this year’s entries,” the organisers said. “The outcome of these collective scores will determine who will make it into the list of acclaimed nominees contesting for this year’s highly acclaimed trophy as the best in Namibian music within each of the categories.

“The esteemed judging panel for this year is once again made up from a very credible and highly acclaimed Namibian panel of judges together with music, entertainment and media executives from South Africa, Kenya, Ghana, Jamaica and the United Kingdom.”

New category added

The organisers also introduced the Artist of the Year category for the 2019 edition of the NAMAs.

“The new category will now see the best talent in Namibia, whether male or female, compete in this category on an equal platform for the accolade of the overall Best Artist of the Year in Namibia,” the NAMAs said. “The winner of Artist of the Year will be decided by the highest score recorded from the judges vote awarded to the winners of the Best Male and Best Female categories.”