MTV Base brings back African music awards

MTV international’s Africa flagship MTVBase was officially launched in 2006 thus opening up a volt of African music.
With MTV Base, we saw the rise of various Nigerian artistes like 2Face Idibia, P-Square, Dbanj and hip hop queen Sasha when they dazzled and captured our imaginations with those exotic videos.
In 2008, After two years of an African Best act in the European Music Awards, MTV sought it was the right time to get the African continent its own award show.
This was the birth of the MAMA held in Nigeria, Uganda barely had a nomination as our single Best Group category nomination came from Bebe Cool’s East African Bashment Crew whose the other quarter was Kenyan.
2009, the show was held in Kenya and again Blu*3 was nominated too in the Best Group category for their well-crafted collabo alongside Radio and Weasel, Where you are.
In 2010, the show somehow returned to Nigeria and again Radio and Weasel were nominated for the Best Group, all the three times the Ugandan nominees lost to P-Square.
But that was the last time the award show was held, they went on some unexpected haitus and after that break, this year, the award show is coming back even with some changes and categories.
Unlike 2009 or 2010, the show comes back at a time when Uganda has some reputable artistes like Navio, Radio and Weasel to front for such awards, a lot has improved as far as video making is concerned.
The show will recognize artistes in thirteen different categories like Best Male, Best Female and Best New Act. three new categories lifestyle, MAMA Leadership Award and Personality of the Year have been added to the list. The special award, Transform Today by Absolut will celebrate the power of young individuals to transform the image of Africa through their creativity and vision.
The nominees for the awards will be revealed on 16 April 2014.
The nominations will be followed by three stunning Road to MAMA events in Durban, South Africa, Lagos, Nigeria and Nairobi, Kenya, building up to the main show, featuring nominees alongside the most current local artists and DJs.
Since they were inaugurated in 2008, the MAMAs were a cocktail of big time celebrity hosts like Trevor from MTV international, Wycliffe Jean and rap princess EVE. At least three of these gongs have gone to Kenyan artistes, one to Amani and the other two to East African music power couple of Nameless and Wahu, the Ugandan gong is yet to come and you never know, it may be this year.
The 2014 MTV Africa Music Awards will premiere on MTV Base, MTV and other partner channels around the continent in June 2014.