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KEEP ABREAST WITH WHAT IS ON THE GROUND ON UGANDA'S MUSIC SCENE
PEARL OF AFRICA MUSIC AWARDS (PAM)
Pam nominees announced
MOSES SERUGO & RAFSANJAN ABBEY TATYA
Jose Chameloene, Mesach Semakula top gunners
WAIT AND SEE: Afrigo Band to which Joanitta Kawalya (L) belongs was nominated for Best Live Band while Annet Nandujja’s (R) Planets was nominated for Best Cultural Artiste/ Group.
Jose Chameleone and Eagles Production vocalist Mesach Semakula dominate the third Pearl of Africa Music (Pam) award nominations with six appearances each in the 2005 shortlist.
Bebe Cool follows with five nominations, while songbird Juliana Kanyomozi is nominated for four awards. East World, Rebecca Jjingo, Bobi Wine, Blu*3 and Abdu Muraasi share three awards each.
The 26-category list of nominations was announced at Ange Mystique by an Ernst & Young official on Tuesday.
Top nominees
Six nominations:
Jose Chameleone
Mesach Semakula
Five nominations
Bebe Cool
Four nominations
Juliana Kanyomozi
Three nominations
East World
Rebecca Jjingo
Bobi Wine
Blu*3
Abdu Muraasi
The awards will be presented on Saturday, October 1, at the Lugogo Cricket Oval and voting starts on Monday, August 8. Chameleone and Semakula will compete for the Artiste of the Year, Best Male Artiste and Song of Year awards. Semakula has two nods for his Sigwe Onsimira and Kankutendereze in the latter category.
Kanyomozi, the female artiste with the highest tally has a Best R&B Single nod for her new hit Nabikoowa. She has additional nominations for the Best R&B Artiste/Group, Best Female Artiste and Song of the Year Award for her Mama Mbiire duet with Bobi Wine. Wine is also up for the Best Male Artiste and Artiste of the Year awards. Blu*3's hit Hitaji is up for the Best R&B Single and Video of the Year awards and the girls are nominees for the Best R&B Artiste/Group award. PAM awards chairman Isaac Mulindwa said the 2005 shortlist demonstrated "the tremendous improvement in the general standard of the music produced by Ugandans today" adding that the new voting system will go a long way in eliminating the irksome campaigns that most artistes had complained about in the past.
Winning artistes in each category will bag Shs1m except for the Artiste of the Year award that comes with a whopping Shs10m reward.
The winners will be chosen by the voting public and a panel of judges who will constitute 40% and 60% of the final tally respectively.
Rafsanjan A. Tatya
Artistes reacted differently to the results as the Pam nominees in the 26 categories were announced. Some applauded the nominees while others booed them.Sam Gombya screamed on top of his voice after his wife, Sophie Gombya was announced among the four nominees for the Best Female Artiste of the Year.The artistes Daily Monitor talked to gave different views about the selections.
Lyrical-G who earned two nominations for Best Hip-Hop Single (Rudi) and Best Hip-Hop Artiste/Group, said he was happy that the public still trusts his music. He promised his competitors a tough contest.Grace Nakalema of the Nsaba Ontondere Omuntu was furious about the results. "There was injustice in choosing the Best Artiste of The Year. Some of the nominees are not worth the awards," she said.Chagga was also unhappy for not appearing on the Best New Artiste list.
"Imagine I managed to qualify for contention with the 'great' Chameleone in Best Afro-beat artiste and Afro-beat single, but I failed to get on the New Artiste list yet I am new," he said. Some newcomers were excited about the news. Ras Dee who was nominated for Western Artiste of The Year could not hide his excitement. He said, "I am feeling myself into the skies, I feeling bigger than the 'Chameleones'. I can not imagine a nobody like me could get a nomination," he said with a smiling face.Both Hip Hop categories do not have artistes that are not mainstream Hip Hop artistes like it was in the past. The little-known Precious & Flava duo is this year's surprise act. Their song, Every Time I Cry, is competing for the Best Gospel Single and Best R&B Single award.
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