UPDATE: Magasco Kicked off Afrimma Award nominee list and Syssi Mananga is not Cameroonian.
No Dr. Nkeng Stephens, Jovi, Maahlox,Tenor, Locko, Minks: Mais qu'est qui n'a pas marché?
Popular opinion is Afrimma lost its credibility without ever seeing it. With the likes of Stanley Enow being nominated every year without releasing music that resonates with the public, many are questioning the criteria for nomination used by Afrimma.
The original list had Syssi Mananga listed as a Cameroonian and everybody around here was like who's that- but a recent update on Afrimma's site now has her listed as Congolese. Mani Bella has also been added to the Best Female Central Africa category. Magasco has also been removed from the Best Male Central Africa and replaced with Mr Leo. This is not the first time we are seeing names being moved around on the Afrimma award nominee list. Last year, DJ Labastille was on then off.
Outspoken Maahlox took to his Facebook account to express his disappointment. He said and I quote loosely "In Cameroon, we all know the artist that will continually release hits, fill up concert halls, and get love from the fans but will never get nominated for awards."
Shamak being nominated over Nkeng Stephens has people scratching their heads, arguing Dr Nkeng has put in more work in the last 18 months than Shamak has done in his entire career. Some even believe Adah Akenji or Mr Adrenaline should make the list over Shamak. There are still a few who share the Poise opinion that quality matters over quantity and Shamak has proven to be more artistic with his few creations over the others who have more of a factory assembly line system of producing music videos.
Without agreeing with any decisions by the Afrimma award committee, we'll now try to dissect their reasoning.
Most award shows usually go for a maximum of five nominations per category but with see Afrimma stretching that to 10. With 27 categories we are talking of 270 artists being nominated. This is nothing other than a marketing ploy to raise awareness for the ceremony. Nominated artists usually go on a social media campaign to convince their fans to vote for them thereby generating publicity for the organizers.
Artists like Stanley still have a huge social media presence despite their lack of good music on air, so the award shows will continue to nominate him to take advantage of the publicity he can pull.