A testament to raising the bar, a squibbing third weekend of the virtual Namibia Annual Music Awards (NAMAs) saw once again fireworks on stage stroked off with deserving winners from four categories.
Sunny Boy and Taylor Jaye stole the evening with the Hikwa King scooping the Best Kwaito accolade in what was arguably the group of death with the likes of Exit, Big Jay, Cassidy and Tulisan all vying for the crown.
In the Best House category, Taylor Jaye took the stage in all white with her hit song CASHE ft Patoranking & Chin Chilla at the expense of the likes of DJ Castro, House Guru Gang and Jona Full Force. This is the Jay Walkers architect’s first from the awards show.
Complete newcomer to the NAMAs, Rose BLVC brought down the roof with a stunning performance when she made her debut on the NAMA stage. Rose took the stage and surprised many with her voice, composure and performance and walked away with the Best Reggae award to the surprise of many.
While she may be relatively new to the competition, her talent rose to the occasion as the Okahandja songstress took one home for the Garden Town in a heavily contested category. Also new to the NAMAs gold podium was Hoppy Mwiya whose name was called for Best Producer with ‘Forbidden Fruit’.
Best Kwaito was sponsored by MTC/NBC, Best Reggae by MTC Nestor Sunshine Promotions, and Best Producer by Nascam and Best House by Standard Bank.
“We would like to congratulate all the winners and all the nominees. The performances have been off the hook, the production quality is excellent and we would like to thank all the artists and production team for their commitment to what is a rather different and difficult project due to Covid-19,” said Tim Ekandjo.
The awards will run until 31 October, and tickets are available at Webtickets Namibia and at all Pick n Pay stores countrywide at N$10. Proceeds from this event will be geared towards a Covid-19 relief fund for the creatives’ fraternity that is one of the many severely hit by the pandemic.
The public can still vote for Best Song of the Year by sending the word “SOY” followed by the number allocated to the song e.g. SOY3 to 66262. Public voting for this category will end on 24 October 2020. Fans are also allowed to choose five artists whom they want to see perform on the 31st October to close off the NAMAs 2020 and bid farewell to the 10 year-long magnificent event which has transformed the Namibian music scene. The artists with the highest SMS votes will perform in the All Fan Favourite slot. To vote, SMS the artist’s name to 66262.
The next NAMAs show is scheduled for the Sat, 26th Sept and will award the Best Group/Duo, Best Music Video and the NAMAs Special Award, which is an award given to an artist, past or present for his/her musical contributions and excellence by the NAMAs executive chairperson.
The 2019 NAMAs Special Award was presented to the late Brenda Fassie and there is no telling who this award will go to this year.