By Priscilla Phiri
Lilongwe, September 15, Mana: The Malawi Sounds Enterprise is calling for the nominations of artists in preparation for its annual music accolades known as MASO awards happening on November 26 at Amaryllis Hotel, Blantyre this year under the theme ‘Youth Empowerment through Arts’.
According to the Malawi Sounds Facebook page, the awards are aimed to honor and appreciate local music artists for their talent and efforts towards developing the music industry in the country.
In an interview with Malawi News Agency (MANA), the Director of MASO, Augustine Mukisi, stated that this year’s awards will focus on the artistic aspect of music, however, the artists will still compete for several categories.
“This year we are looking at the artistic point of view of music and at the same time we are not putting gospel and secular artists in separate categories, they will be competing for some categories except on the Gospel artist of the year and the Best Gospel Song of the Year categories reserved for gospel artists,” he said.
Mukisi also emphasized that the nominations of the artists will be based on specific aspects that the artists have portrayed throughout the year.
“There are certain aspects that we are looking for this year for instance we are focusing on relevance, he or she must have released some songs in this year and have a number of downloads for the songs as well as airplay,” he emphasized.
Malawi Sounds organizers are therefore urging fans to start nominating exceptional Malawian artists who have performed well this year for various categories through the MASO Awards website according to a post on Malawi Sounds Facebook page.
“We are therefore calling upon the general public to nominate artists who have been outstanding this year using the link on our website,” reads part of the post.
Commenting on the same, one of the artists who was awarded as the Best Upcoming Artist of the year 2021 and the hit maker of the song Mojo Shafie Sharif Phiri commonly known as Driemo esteemed last year’s award ceremony highly as the best day of his life.
“It was one of the best days of my life I was thrilled and happy and it was a moment,” said Driemo.
He also emphasized that the award has been an icon of trust and appreciation from his fans who nominated him and it has encouraged him to put more effort in his career.
MASO Awards ceremony is a stellar red-carpet event that celebrates the achievements of Malawian musicians. The event has also successfully stirred up powerful conversations on important social themes such as mental health.
This year’s nominations have been scheduled for September 10 to October 7 which will be followed by voting from October 15 to November 19.
