So yesterday, the Africa Muzik Magazine Awards and Music Festival (AFRIMMA) released the list of nominees for its 6th edition.
As usual, many Cameroonian entertainers were nominated, notably multiple nominations for Salatiel and Stanley Enow. See below Cameroonian artists and the various categories they were nominated in.
Best Male Central Africa
Stanley Enow
Salatiel
Best Female Central Africa
Blanche Bailly
Charlotte Dipanda
Daphne
Music Producer of The Year
Salatiel
Best Francophone
Stanley Enow
Daphne
Salatiel
Best Video Director
Dr Nkeng Stephens
The above listed artists in their various categories signify that they are the best in Cameroon among the many artists in the country. But how do the nominations compare to those of last year? Which artists have failed out of the list, which artists have joined and which of them have maintained their positions?
The biggest newcomer and sensation of this year in the awards is Salatiel. The Alpha Better Records CEO bags nominations in this year’s AFRIMMA after being completely absent from the last edition.
In the category “Best Male Central Africa”, Stanley Enow and Salatiel come in fresh as Locko and Numerica drop out following last year’s nominations.
Locko is the big loser here as the years 2018 through 2019 have been good years for him as he dropped two albums, The Bridge and Cloud 9, won best album and best voice at the Balafon music awards and emerged best artist at the Canal 2’or Awards 2019.
Stanley Enow on the other hand has released two smash hits, “My Way” ft Locko and Tzy Panchak and “Good Day”.
Salatiel also comes in after dropping “Weekend“, “Comme Ca” ft Daphne, Anita and featuring in Beyonce’s Lion the King album in the song “Water” also that also featured Pharrell Williams.
In the category “Best Female Central Africa”, Rennis, and Gasha miss out this year as Blanche Bailly joins Charlotte Dipanda and Daphne in this edition.
Gasha and Reniss has been very silent the past few years, though we’ve seen signs of a comeback from Gasha within the past months. Meanwhile Daphne and Charlotte Dipanda maintain a spot as they’ve stayed consistent with several shows and songs throughout this period.
Many will argue that Blanche Bailly has put in enough work within the past year as she has headlined several shows, tours and dropped songs like “Bon Bon”, “Ndolo”, “Ton Pied Mon Pied” and “Argent”.
In the Category “Best Francophone” which also features many Cameroonian artists, Locko and Numerica again miss out this time from this year’s edition as Stanley Enow, Daphne and Salatiel on the Lineup with Salatiel the newcomer.
Again, Salatiel has worked his way to recognition as he finds his way at the top among the best in the country. Stanley Enow and Daphne are regular names in this category.
“Best Video Director” category, Dr. Nkeng Stephens maintains his position and continues to represent Cameroon as he did last year.
“Music Producer of the Year” comes next as Salatiel is nominated for this year’s edition.
This is Probably the biggest honour to Cameroon for this year at the AFRIMMAs as Salatiel proudly Cameroon represents in a list of the biggest music producers in Africa. Worth noting that no Cameroonian music producer was nominated last year for this category.
So, in summary, 6 artists from Cameroon are nominated this year, a reduction from the 9 that were nominated last year.
AFRIMMA did not recognize any potential best newcomer from Cameroon this year, a category that Tenor featured in last year.
Cameroon could only feature in a contest that involves the whole of Africa in the “Best Video Director” and “Best Producer” categories represented by Dr. Nkeng and Salatiel. These again I insist are big honours given the other categories see us competing at regional level.
If AFRIMMA was a tool to measure the progress rate of the industry, then we would conclusively say we are regressing as we find miss out from the categories at regional level and very few at the level of the Continent as a whole.
However, many could argue that several other Cameroonian artists including Mr. Leo, Ko-C, Jovi, Magasco, Tenor, Mink’s, Nabila and a host of others have put in some good word within the past year and deserve a spot in the various categories.
Well, almost all the analysis and statistics have been mentioned above, what do you think above the AFRIMMA Nominations this year? What is your opinion about the progress rate of the industry? Share with us in the comments section below or in comment sections in our various platforms.
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