Inaugural Angel Gospel Music Awards

By Novell Zwangendaba

JOHANNESBURG – The inaugural ZIMBABWE ANGEL GOSPEL MUSIC AWARDS (ZAGMA) are set for Harare in November this year, at a venue to be announced later by the organisers.

“Angel statuettes will be awarded as angels represent the best voices in Gospel music,” said coordinator of the awards, the Johannesburg-based and MUSICA PEACE AWARD-winner, RevToggy Chivaviro.

These awards to be held towards the end of November will cover the period Jan-October 2010 and only work released during this period will be considered. the categories for the awards include;

BEST MALE ARTIST

BEST FEMALE ARTIST

BEST MAPOSTORI

BEST MUSIC VIDEO

BEST NEWCOMER

BEST GROUP

BEST VIDEO ALBUM

BEST ACCAPELLA

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

BEST PRODUCER

SONG OF THE YEAR

POST HUMOUS ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT

Song of the year will be a people’s choice and the organisers say logistics are being put in place for the voting procedure.

These will be inaugural awards are expected to begin not on a very high level as organisers hope to make the awards annual, bigger and better as they grow.

“We are set to introduce the concept and probably conscientise the nation on a need to reward artists in arguably the biggest genre at the moment. We also hope this can trigger an awareness for other players to come in and do likewise in other genres like Sungura, traditional, urban grooves etc. We also hope to use the inaugural awards to lure partners for sponsorships and rewarding partnerships,” said Rev. Chivaviro.

Negotiations with sponsors, individuals, churches and various partners with whom the organisers hope to partner with this year are on an advanced stage.

Judges, whose names will not be revealed now, are already at work and will keep their eyes and ears open, in liaison with record companies, for new works. However nominations can be done by individuals or companies and processed by end of October 2010.

A site is being developed for the awards and expected to be running by May 2010.

Rev Chivaviro said, “We hope this might also help make more Gospel artists go into the studios to record and also take their time to produce quality works.”

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