MUSIC AWARDS COMING
BOMU and YAMAS events billed for September
The Botswana Musicians Union ( BOMU) and the Yarona FM Music Awards ( YAMAs) are planned to take place this September. The two events will award artists in different respective categories. Both awards have enjoyed a big cash injection from the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development. This is a first for both awards as awardees will walk away with prize money.
BOMU awards received a sponsorship to the tune of P500,000.00, and the bulk of the funds will go towards prizes for artists.
On the other hand, the youthful radio station is continuing its partnership with the Ministry. In 2020, the Ministry partnered with Yarona FM in delivering the Yarona FM Music Awards.
This was announced by Minister Tumiso Rakgare when updating parliament recently.
Speaking during his address, he explained that the YAMAs attracted a total of 325 artists that benefited from a total amount of P864, 998.40. This partnership between his office and the radio station also extends to this year. The Ministry is sponsoring the project to the tune of P912, 000. 00 taking into account that local artists are benefiting both financially and through marketing of their artistic works. This partnership, he said, also includes acquisition of content for NOW! Channel. In return, Yarona FM has offered the Ministry air time for the marketing of its products and services to the youth, he noted.
Speaking in an interview with this publication, Event Organiser of the ( BOMU) awards, Seabelo Modibe of Total Music Group shared with this publication that they were just about ready to unveil sponsors and nominees. He explained that it took them time to work on certain logistics of the awards. He tells this publication that they had to overhaul the whole system, and create something new. One of the things that they had to work on was seeing to it that artists were in the right categories. “It has taken us three weeks cleaning the system, and we also wanted to sort out the issue of nominations,” he said.
The ( BOMU) awards comprise of 30 categories, and each nominee will each pocket P1000, while winners of the different categories will walk away with P15 000. On top of this, winners in the Top Six categories that include Album of the Year, Best Male Artist, Best Female Artist, Best Music Duo/ Group, Best Newcomer, will get a cash injection of P15 000. The biggest winner of the night being the Song of the Year Award, will win P25 000. This is the only category where the public will have the opportunity to pick their favourite artist. The theme for the tenth edition of the awards is Let’s Build the Music Industry together.
In the meantime, the seventh edition of the YAMA’s has received a staggering P1.4 million sponsorships from First National Bank of Botswana Limited ( FNBB), Mascom and Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development ( MYSC) to benefit over 200 creatives. MYSC is tipped to be the biggest contributor to the sponsorship after popping up P800 000 followed by FNBB which contributed P500 000 and Mascom which sponsored with P150 000. This staggering amount, according to a recent press release means that winners will walk away with staggering prize money in the respective 17 categories, with the largest amount being P60 000 which has been set for the People’s Choice Artists of the Year category winner followed by Song of the Year category which has a P40 000 share. Winners in the other categories will each pocket P10 000, and they include Best Social Media ( Mascom and MYSC), Producer of the Year ( Mascom and MYSC) Best PoPP10 000.00, BEST NEWCOMER, BEST KWAITO, BEST DANCE SINGLE, BEST COLLABO, BEST HIP HOP- P10 000.00, BEST DJ, BEST AMAPIANO, and BEST RnB SINGLE. The Icon Award winner walks off with P25, 000, and the Hall of Fame winner will pocket P30, 000. The Best Male, and Best female winners will also be smiling all the way to the bank with a prize money of P30 000, and the Song of the Year – gets P40, 000.
“Over 200 creatives such as musicians, dancers, instrumentalists, fashion designers, graphic designers and creative directors are expected to benefit from the money that we have received from our sponsors. This is the first time that we will have winners walking away with large sums of money such as P60 000, this will be the first in the history of music awards in the country. As the event organizers, we appreciate that the sponsors have assisted on our quest of developing the arts industry especially during this COVID- 19 era which has resulted in most artists losing their jobs,” said Percy Raditladi, YAMAS Project Manager in a recent press release.
The YAMAS Project Manager also mentioned that the voting lines are still open and will be closed on September 6th with the main event scheduled to take place the last week of the same month. He encouraged Batswana to vote for their favourite artists who have been nominated in various categories. The awards are held under the theme: Future Culture and will be hosted by Mdu tha Party, host of the Power to the People and Kedi Molosiwa who hosts the Shud Up & Drive show.