All Africa Music Awards '' AFRIMA ''

All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, is designed to promote the distinct rich African music worldwide, engaging millions of fans by propelling African music to glorious pinnacles beyond the borders of Africa. In Africa, music is always seen as inseparable from human existence. It carries long traditions and values that are associated with the people and represents part of their identities.

Music in African societies, as it functions in many different societies in the world, has enormous value. Music, either making it or listening to it,is linked to life experiences and peoples’ culture. As such, sweet, feel good experiences need to be created for the millions of followers of African music all over the world for them to understand and appreciate Africa’s culture. Hence, the birth of AFRIMA to inspire generations and celebrate African music. Consequently, Nigeria, a beautiful country known for its energy and warm hospitality won the rights above 13 other countries to host the AFRIMA for three consecutive years from 2014 to 2016. AFRIMA is a combined effort to recognise, award, promote and preserve Africa’s rich music culture. In partnership with the African Union, AU, it is expected to be the biggest music event in Africa. Debates, ideas, strategies have taken place over the last three years to identify a gap in the market place and most importantly to close that gap. Also to create a brand that will truly live up to the expectations of its internal and external stakeholders. Deliberations and conferencing included regional directors and strategists from the SADEC, Eastern Africa, Central Africa, North and West Africa. AFRIMA has five Regional Directors and 54 Country Directors as part of the decision making organs. SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PROJECT Our Voice project is one of the initiatives of AFRIMA Foundation aimed at supporting and raising the consciousness for education for all children in Africa. ”Our Voice” project is driven by “On the Way to AFRIMA Concerts” Each concert will be marketed as a 'Party with Purpose' where music lovers can enjoy the crème of African music while contributing to a cause that needs support. Illiteracy is the bane of poverty in Africa. As such, the members of the international committee of AFRIMA are committed to reducing illiteracy in Africa via the “Educate-a-Child Campaign'' (Our Voice) initiative meant to drive support for investment in education by African leaders. There will be concerts leading to the Awards ceremony due to take place in Nigeria, West Africa. It will also serve to expose AFRIMA partners and sponsors. African music is very diverse and unique and the traditional music of Africa has a distinct “call and response” type of vocal music. This means there is a “lead singer” who sings a particular phrase and this is followed by repetition of this phrase by a group of singers performing too. Drums alone are so diverse in nature that it can be mind boggling. Each region of Africa has specific kinds of drums; there are water drums in Western and Central Africa, talking drums are seen in West Africa and Ngoma drums in South Africa. In North Africa, Folk music abounds despite frequent condemnation and suppression from governments and exists in multiple forms across the region—the Berbers, Sephardic Jews, Tuaregs and Nubians, for example, retain musical traditions with ancient roots. African music genres range from Ghana’s highlife, Congo’s “Soukous”, “juju” music from Nigeria and “jit” from Zimbabwe to name a few. AFRIMA FACTS AFRIMA is a combined effort by music professionals across the continent aimed at celebrating the rich musical heritage of African continent. About 44 countries vied to be the host of the iconic continental award AFRIMA. Nigeria won the right to host AFRIMA for three years (2014-2016). AFRIMA is spearheaded by a group of professionals and music stakeholders known as the International Committee. The theme of the maiden edition of the All Africa Music Awards is “For Hope, For Celebration”. It revolves round the universal power of music as a tool of unity in the African continent despite the challenges it faces. FACE IT is an acronym coined by the International Committee of AFRIMA. It represents the core values of the All Africa Music Award which are: Fairness, Authenticity, Creativity, Excellence, Integrity and Transparency. The Africa continent is known for its diverse cultures, thus, AFRIMA is an avenue to showcase, celebrate, promote and preserve the rich African cultural heritage and values. AFRIMA also celebrates unrecorded artistes, proving a platform for them to showcase their talents to the world. The African Union Commission is in partnership with AFRIMA as well as other government agencies across the continent who are delighted to be part of this epoch-making event. AFRIMA is not an anagram of AFRICA however, both 6-letter words have exact letters of the alphabet with exception of the fifth letters 'C' and 'M' respectively. The All Africa Music Awards trophy is a blend of traditional and contemporary elements of music, the African Djembe drum and a microphone. The Djembe drum is a musical instrument of the Bamana people of Mali. Djembe is coined from a popular saying in the Bamana culture “ Anke dje, anke” which translates to “Everyone gather together in peace” in English. The microphone is the contemporary device that transforms the acoustic signal of a vocal performance into electrical signals and filtered into the sounds we hear. The fusion of these two musical instruments reflects AFRIMA’s goal to bridge the gaping gap between the classic and contemporary musicians of Africa. It seeks to unite and celebrate all forms of African music irrespective of its era. The All Africa Music Awards in it's maiden edition, recorded an impressive participation as a total of two thousand and twenty five entries (2,025) were received at the close of the submission of entry. Winners will emerge through a voting process which will occur via the AFRIMA Academy and the public. Voting is strictly online. As part of AFRIMA core values to show transparency and integrity, the submitted works will be screened by a 13-person jury panel that is part of the AFRIMA Academy of Voters comprising of 527 members grouped into two layers of adjudicators spread across the five regions of Africa. The jury members who have been carefully selected to represent the five (5) regions of Africa and the Diaspora are from the following countries- Kenya, Senegal, Uganda, Morocco, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Cameroon, UK and USA as well as a representative from the African Union. As part of the AFRIMA’s initiative, “Our Voice” project is a corporate social responsibility project aimed at supporting and raising the consciousness for education and literacy for children in Africa. AFRIMA Village, a four-day open festival-like music concert holding, draws its inspiration from the traditional African style of celebration. This traditional form of Africa celebration took place during special occasions such as the coronation of a king or attainment of a title, death of a notable man or woman, crop harvesting season, etc. In the old days, people from distant and neighbouring towns and villages will troop to the celebrating town to be part of dancing, eating and drinking. Such events featured masquerade display, friendly wrestling matches and vigorous dancing. AFRIMA Village will likewise feature carnival display by participating countries, music stars in performance and abundance of food and drinks! There will be an Africa Music Summit, themed "Reviving the Business of Music in Africa". The one-day conference will be a platform for the music industry stakeholders to engage and deliberate on how the industry can be nurtured and be a major contributor to national and continental economies. The All Africa Music Award Ceremony promises to be a premium and star-studded event. It will be beamed live in 84 countries on 109 TV stations around the globe. Address: 16C, Bamishile Street, Off Allen/Opebi Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. Email: connect@afrima.org Phone: +234 709 8821298, +234 8132940888 http://www.afrima.org