By Monica Tambala
Lilongwe, October 15, Mana: Organizers of the Maso awards have lamented over the lack of cooperation by Malawians in promoting different awards in the country.
Others took to social media with mixed reactions following a withdraw of Wisdom Phanga, Manager for Evans Zangazanga popularly known as Piksy who was nominated by Malawians to compete for the Manager of the year award.
In an interview with Malawi News Agency (Mana), Director of Maso, Augustine Mukisi highlighted that there was a need for Malawians to change their attitude towards awards as it was from the different attitudes that the industry was dying.
“Maso awards are not a dividing factor they are unifying because they bring artists from different industries, gospel and secular, we are here to unify and develop the music industry. We are here to make the music industry better, so they should support us,
Awards are not a competition but a way of appreciating the artists who are doing outstanding work in their territories for their efforts,” he said.
Mukisi advised artists to learn to support and respect all outcomes and support their fellow nominees and artists instead of criticizing on social media.
“if there is something wrong, they can always reach out to us on all our social media platforms to discuss how best we can improve, we should not focus on someone who has withdrawn when there are a lot of artists in the industry who are campaigning from big artists like physics, Driemo, Vinny visuals and many more,
Last year, we had Sukez who withdrew from last year’s award, Sukez approached us privately which is the best way to go, contact the organizers and inform them of the decision to solve the issue in private if need be,” he said.
Mukisi said the awards are fair and the results would be fair and transparent and encouraged Malawians to expect the best event ever as they have partnered with EP (a music recording studio) and Amaryllis hotel to make the event memorable.
Phanga, who was nominated but withdrew from the awards took time to thank everyone who nominated him but requested that they understand that he has his own beliefs.
“I have been working as an artist manager for over 10 years, I have managed Piksy throughout the period. He has been consistent and successful that is my achievement, I feel like artists need awards not me as manager,
that is the main reason we have made history this year doing 3 launches in 3 different regions without corporate support and still sold out the events with no international artists. This to me is a way greater than contesting in the award,” he said.
Maso Awards is currently the only active music award with their awarding ceremony taking place on November 26, 2022 at Amaryllis Hotel-Blantyre.
