The 6th edition of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA 2019) will take place in Lagos from 20-23 November 2019.
AFRIMA is a yearly awards event that was established by the International Committee AFRIMA, in collaboration with the African Union (AU) for rewarding and celebrating musical works, talents and creativity around the African continent while promoting the African cultural heritage as a whole.
The awards include 37 prizes broadly categorised into two groups, the regional category and the continental category.
A. Regional Categories
The regional categories are awarded to artists at the regional level recognising the distinct regions of West, East, North, South and Central Africa, presumably as a nod to the uniqueness of the different regions and styles of music. Perhaps also for inclusion purposes so that every region of the African continent is represented. That way, the awards on any given year is not dominated by one or a few regions.
Some of the awards given out at the sub-regional categories.
- Best Female Artiste in Central Africa
- Best Female Artiste in Eastern Africa
- Best Female Artiste in Southern Africa
- Best Female Artiste in Western Africa
- Best Female Artsite In Northern Africa
- Best Male Artiste in Central Africa
- Best Male Artiste in Eastern Africa
- Best Male Artiste in Northern Africa
- Best Male Artiste in Southern Africa
- Best Male Artiste in Western Africa
B. Continental Categories
The continental categories, on the other hand, cater to the level of the continental. In these categories, artists winners for each of the sub-continental category are announced. Invariably, they are also winners at the regional levels. Some of the prizes are also genre-based.
Some the awards are given out at the sub-regional categories.
- African Fans Favourite
- Album of the Year In Africa
- Artiste of the Year In Africa
- Best Africa Artiste, Duo Or Group In African Electro
- Best African Act In The Diaspora
- Best African Collaboration
- Best African Dance Or Choreography
- Best African Dj
Artist of the Year (AFRIMA 2019)
This year, for the highly coveted Artist of the Year award, Nigeria’s Burna Boy, Wizkid and Davido have been nominated alongside other African heavyweights like Nasty C from South Africa, Diamond Platnumz from Tanzania, Daphne from Cameroon, Prince Kaybee also from South Africa, Tamer Hosny from Egypt and Aminux from Morocco.
All of the artists have had a very good music year but all of them cannot be crowned Artist of the Year although we wonder if it would be possible to award the prize to a couple of them if there were a tie? Something to mull over. In any case, let us now look at each of the artists’ year to see what got them within whiskers of winning the award.
Here we go…
1. Burna Boy
Damini Ebunoluwa Ogulu who goes by the stage name ‘Burna Boy’ is a Nigerian singer and songwriter who had his breakout in the Nigerian music industry in 2012 after the release of Like to Party, the lead single from his debut album titled L.I.F.E. Burna Boy waw nominated for his song Gbona which was released in 2018. The has over 28 million views on YouTube.
2019, undoubtedly, can be described as the best music year so far for Burna Boy. Just yesterday, Wednesday 20 November 2019, news broke that the Burna has been nominated for a Grammy Award under the World Music category.
The announcement caps what has so far been a phenomenal year for the African Giant singer. He recently beat Teni and other African heavyweights to grab the Best African Act Award at the 2019 MTV Europe Music Awards on 4 November. That was also the same day he sold out the Wembley Arena – one of the biggest venues – in London. Which incidentally is also one of the venues he has sold out in 2019.
He has been featured on many of the prestigious American TV shows that the majority of African artists don’t even picture in their imaginations. One of his songs; the title track of his African Giant album got featured on Ballers – a popular American TV series and he recently got featured on the soundtrack for the soon to be released Queen and Slim, another American movie. Burna Boy was also the only Nigerian artist that has a solo track titled Ja Ara E, in Beyonce’s curated album, Lion King: The Gift.
Since the announcement on the 3rd of January announcing him as one of the artists to perform at the 2019 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival, the year has continued to be juicy for Burna. Just 2 days later (5 January) he won four awards at the Soundcity MVP Awards.
He also won the BET Best International Act Award in June, got announced as Apple Music’s Up Next artist in July, got featured on Beyonce’s Lion King album in that same July just before he dropped his wave making African Giant album. An album that sits on a solid foundation of back to back hit singles like Gbona, On the low, Dangote, Killin Dem, Anybody and Pull up and other great songs that even highly notable figures like Elton John, Joe Budden, GQ, Complex and many others had to publicly endorse.
Burna Boy also recently benched both Wizkid and Davido to win the Artist of the Year award at the 2019 Headies that was held in October.
Would the self-acclaimed “African Giant” flog them again alongside these other African heavyweights to win the 2019 Artist of the Year’ award at AFRIMA 2019?
It doesn’t really matter what unveils. It doesn’t stop the logical conclusion that 2019 is the ‘Year two thousand and Burna Boy“.
2. Wizkid
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Wizkid, whose real name is Ayodeji Balogun, is a Nigerian singer and songwriter who hit the limelight in 2010 with the release of his song Holla at you boy after he was signed to Banky W’s record label, Empire Mates Entertainment (E.M.E).
Wizkid is nominated for the Artist of the Year Award for his song, Fever which was released in October 2018. The song currently has over 43 million views on YouTube.
He is one of the most decorated African artists with two BET Awards, three MOBO Awards, eight Headies, two Channel O Music Video Awards, six Nigeria Entertainment Awards, four Soundcity MVP Awards, three Billboard Music Awards, four MTV Africa Awards, two MTV Europe Awards and many more.
In 2016, Wizkid broke out completely into massive international recognition when One Dance, his global hit collaboration with Drake hit the number one spot in about 15 countries including the US, UK, Canada and Australia. He got signed to RCA Records in March 2017 and ever since, the story has ever been up and up for him. He is the youngest African artist to be nominated for Grammy. He even has a day named after him in Minnesota, USA!
2019 is surely another ‘better than good‘ year for Wizkid.
On July 23, Beyonce released her Lion King album which features her collaborative song with Wizkid, Brown Skin Girl. The song became an instant hit and just this week, Wizkid along with Beyonce, Blue Ivy Carter – Beyonce’s daughter snatched the Songwriter Award at the 2019 Soul Train Awards held on 17 November 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
On 2 July, just a few days after the release of Beyonce’s album, Wizkid signed an endorsement deal that he described on his Instagram handle as the “biggest deal for Africa” with UBA (United Bank for Africa).
He released two new singles in September before he embarked on start shutting down some of the most respected venues in Europe including the 20,000 capacity O2 Arena in London and Le Dock Pullman in Paris with his sold-out Starboy Fest in October.
And just as October was about to round off, the real African star boy was announced as a Soul Train Music Awards nominee on October 29; making him a three-time nominee for the prestigious award.
He was nominated in 2016 for the Rhythm and Bars category, for One Dance and for Best Dance Performance in 2017 for his song Come Closer – both collaborative efforts with Drake. As the saying goes, third time is the charm, Wizkid won a Soul train award in the Best Collaboration and the Songwriters’ Award categories, all for his collaborative song with Beyoncé, Brown Skin Girl.
Will the Starboy win or lose the AFRIMA 2019 Artiste of the year prize? We can’t wait to find out.
3. Davido
David Adedeji Adeleke, professionally known as Davido, is a Nigerian singer, songwriter and record producer under his own record label, DMW. He rose to limelight in 2011 after the release of Dami Duro; the second single off of his 2012 debut album O.B.O.
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Davido is nominated for the Artist of the Year Award for his song, Wonder Woman, released in December 2019. The song currently has over 12 million views on YouTube.
Davido is a great achiever. He is also one of the most nominated and decorated artists in Africa with two BET Awards, one Kora Award, one Channel O Music Award, two MTV Africa Awards, five Headies Awards, seven Nigeria Entertainment Awards, two MTV Europe Awards,1 MOBO Award and many others.
2019 is surely an “A Good Time” for Davido as he confirms with the title of his upcoming album.
Davido started the year in a grand style with his landmark achievement of selling out The O2 Arena in London on 27 January.
Followed by his remarkable success of breaking into the US music industry after a series of massive, relentless and intentional efforts, which his songs getting massive airplay across the US and eventually making it to the Billboard Charts. Fall peaked at #13 while 2 AM (his collaborative effort with Casanova and co) peaked at #41.
Then, in July, he featured Chris Brown on Blow My Mind and the song was an instant success. The video for Blow My Mind got more than 1M views on YouTube under 24hours of release. He dropped Risky featuring Popcaan on 23 October and it also became an instant success.
Davido has graced the stage with major artists on various shows in the US with loud ovations from the crowd and it seems like the “show-killing” DMW boss is just getting started.
The DMW boss is surely having a good time and the numbers are showing it. He is also nominated in five other categories at AFRIMA 2019.
4. Nasty C
Nsikayesizwe David Junior Ngcobo, who goes by the stage name Nasty C, is a South African rapper, songwriter and record producer. He gained public recognition after releasing Price City, his mixtape that produced the successful single, Juice Back in 2015.
