The Chronicle
Showbiz Reporter
PREPARATIONS for the Zimbabwe Music Awards (Zima) 2020 edition are underway with event organisers saying it will be business unusual as they have new partnerships, new expertise and new categories.
The awards show that was last held in 2016 will be held on January 25 and dubbed “Zima2020”.
Newly appointed Zima chief executive officer, Reason Sibanda, said the awards ceremony, whose venue is yet to be unveiled, will celebrate 16 years of musical excellence and creativity.
“Zima has a new team boasting of a wide ranging experience in the industry, both locally and internationally. This team has combined expertise gained from local and international festivals and awards such as the Bulawayo Arts Awards, Glastonbury, Mtv Africa Music Awards and the South African Music Awards,” he said.
“We’re committed to annually and consistently recognise, promote and celebrate our musicians, their music and the music support systems through strengthening the Zimbabwe Music awards’ total infrastructure. We also want to preserve the Zimbabwe musical legacy and heritage through Zima’s custodial culture of continuous research, documentation and archiving.”
Entries for the 32 categories, Sibanda said, will open on November 11 and close on December 31 this year. They will be adjudicated from January 1 to 10 with the nominees set to be announced on January 11 ahead of the awards ceremony on January 25.
The top five awards will be Best female artist of the year, Best male artist of the year, Best group/duo of the year, Best newcomer of the year and Best album of the year. Other awards will be for Zimdancehall, Sungura, Afro pop, Hip hop, Contemporary gospel, Traditional gospel, Rnb & soul, Jazz, Dance (house/gqom/kwaito/edm), Tshibilika, Traditional (folk/chinyakare/chimurenga) and Traditional (folk/ezomdabu/imbube) genres.
Technical awards for Producer of the year, Engineer of the year, Best music video and Best videographer will also be included. Special awards will be given for Best collaboration, Best DJ (radio/ club), Best promoter, Best international Zim artist and Best corporate sponsor.
Sibanda said record companies and/or individual artists are required to submit entries in accordance with published rules of the Zimbabwe Music Awards.
“All recordings (singles and albums) submitted for Zima 2020 must have been commercially released in Zimbabwe during the period 01 January 2019 to 31 December 2019,” he said.
Once entries are opened, Zima will provide entrants with forms that must be completed and submitted online or physically in receiving boxes.
“On completion of entries, accompanying assets are required to have reached Zima office by no later than the published closing dates, failing which the entry is disqualified,” Sibanda said.
Thereafter, entries received will be screened for compliance with Zima rules in order to ensure that they are eligible and that they were submitted into the correct award categories. A panel of judges will then adjudicate the entries with the exception of the public vote on Song of the year.
“In the interest of system and process integrity, independent auditors will collate results returned by judges into auditable sets. The auditors will enumerate results on which a list of up to a maximum five nominees per category is based and ensure that the choices of judges have been arrived at in accordance with all the relevant rules of each category. Once nominees for all categories have been collated, they will be ready to be announced. Finally, winners will be announced at the awards ceremony.”
