Channel O set for 10th awards

Nominations for the 10th Annual Channel O Africa Music Awards were announced during the week revealing an open field in the race to claim Africa’s most prestigious music awards. Nominees in the 14 categories included multiple double nods for over 10 artists, from East, West and Southern African, reflecting the outpouring of world-class music videos on the continent over the past year. It’s now up to fans to vote for their favourites in this public-voted event, with more than two months for the continent’s music fans to have their say.

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The list of nominees is has new faces, including the five contenders in the Most Gifted Newcomer category including South Africa’s Moneoa, and Idols Season 8 winner Khaya Mthethwa , Nigeria’s Lola Rae and Burna Boy. Kenya’s Victoria Kimani was also nominated. And the multiplicity of genres emerging in this highlight category of the 10th Annual Channel O Africa Music Video Awards from Dance Pop to contemporary Afrobeat and Afro-fusion – provides a brilliant glimpse into the diversity of sounds that currently define Africa’s music scene.

To celebrate a decade of recognising the best African contemporary music talent, the 10th Annual Channel O Africa Music Awards has expanded the prestigious Most Gifted Video of the Year category to 12 nominees, increasing the pressure on nominees in the most fiercely fought category at the awards. The category again reveals the mix of newcomers and established artists at this year’s event – a signal of the growing maturity of Africa’s music scene.

South African duo Mafikizolo’s “Khona” is up for Most Gifted Video of the Year as well as Most Gifted Dance Video, and Nigeria’s P Square proves their ongoing popularity with the nomination of “Alingo” for the Most Gifted Video of the Year as well as Most Gifted African West.

This year’s event will hold on the 30^th of November at Walter Sisulu Square, in Kliptown Soweto, South Africa.