Who makes the best music is one of those age old arguments we might all never quite agree on. Even if we limit it to the best in an era, or the best in a decade, or even the best in a particular year.
Although all these things don’t stop us from trying. We’re reaching the business end of yet another awards season and the gap between how the populous and the awarding panels view music seems at it’s furthest.
Granted no awards season is without it’s snubs, or it’s arguments about the nominees and the winners. Whether it’s the Grammys, the AFRIMAs or the NAMAs.
The Zimbabwean music awards season recently had another instalment of nominees announced that has ignited debate. It’s been a consistent theme since December and so we have to ask ARE ZIMBABWEAN MUSIC AWARD SHOWS OUT OF TOUCH?
The Zimbabwean Music Awards (The ZIMAs) recently revealed their list of nominees and a startling omission from the HipHop category was Voltz JT. Zimhiphop’s Man of the Year. Winner of the best album at the Zimhiphop Awards. It should be noted that the ZIMAs got out ahead of some of these things. They mentioned that some sure nominees failed to make the submission deadline and some didn’t submit at all.
A point to note is that we have a few artists that definitely should be in the running but for one reason or another, they did not submit for consideration. It is important to note that one of the key rules we live by at ZIMA is that “No submission, no entry”.
We also faced a number of eligible entries that came in albeit after the closing of submissions. According to our rules, this is an automatic disqualification. Another challenge we have faced is the classification of songs into genres. Going forward we will need to work together with all stakeholders to help artists submit for the correct categories.
Yet even after reading this it still feels like Zimbabwean art is being short changed by the nature of the process.
I mean it’s such a rarity to have our creative sector producing visuals that get such international recognition like Mann Friday’s Fight for Me. It struck gold at both the Cannes World Film Festival and the Berlin Indie Film Festival, by winning the Best Music Video honour. It was also selected to be screened in the Best Music Video category at the London International Short Film Festival but somehow it didn’t make the ZIMAs.
Now the issue of submissions is not a new one, but it has raged on for different award shows. Tanto Wavie famously had a stand-off with the Zimhiphop Awards, which saw Sungura Museve, his best piece of work and arguably the best HipHop project of 2021 missing out from nominations.
So why isn’t there a middle ground? Every year award shows promise to do better to engage with artists to ensure they understand the process but as always it doesn’t go quite right (I’ll admit half the problem might be artists not willing to meet award shows halfway). So then isn’t it time we tried to incorporate a better adjudication process that didn’t solely depend on submitted projects?
In the last 12 months, no one and I mean no one has had an album as talked about as Winky D’s Eureka Eureka! Yet surprising enough he’s been omitted in the nominees for each and every award show so far.
The track Ibotso from this project which features Holy Ten, has ignited widespread debate and no matter which side of the argument you might fallen, you can’t deny how loved the song is. Somehow award shows have just been oblivious to this, even the radio awards that don’t depend on submissions.
Maybe I have to concede that in Winky D’s case he’s just too controversial but artists should be free to express themselves and shows meant to honour that art should see the art for what it is. It’s funny seeing Winky D get zero nominations locally, while in the same period he receives a continental and international recognition.
But I digress, let’s ignore the snubs, the submission process, the intentional denial of airplay and take a look at the adjudication process of some of our showcases.
The ZIMAs have Feli Nandi and Msiz’kay nominated under both Best Afrofusion/Afropop and Best Alternative. For Best Producer Chillspot Recordz are nominated as a whole when the rest of the nominees are individuals.
The NAMAs had songs being the basis on nominations for the Outstanding Newcomer category, and while Saintfloew and Andrea the Vocalist stood as individuals, Leo Magozz, Bling4 and Brian Jeck were all nominated together for Fire Emoji. I could add more examples but I think you get the point. Now no award show can be perfect, but surely they’re things we can do to improve our systems.
The biggest reason there’s a seeming disconnect between the art and the events that’s celebrate it, is not enough being done to consult the creatives events are meant to celebrate. The existence of several different events celebrating music usually offers up some balance but sometimes it doesn’t feel enough. It’s hard to say if 2023 is worse than other but I feel the gap this year more than most.
The good thing is that art has it’s own life outside of the accolades. To paraphrase the award winning Zimhiphop scribe Takudzwa Manando:
The logic is simple, awards are never the yardstick for the amount of impact art generates. Art cannot be boxed in. Soul Jah Love’s Pamamonya missed out on the NAMAs, Takura’s Someone Had To Do It (SHTDi) missed out on album of the year at 2018 ZimHipHop awards. Nobody feels sorry that some of the greatest music produced in Zimbabwe is without any accolades to show, because the art earned permanent memories in the hearts of the people.
