The winners for this year's Channel O Music Video Awards (MVA) have been named. The awards ceremony came off Thursday night (Oct 9) at the Carnival City, in Johannesburg, South Africa. The MC's were Channel O's own Nonhle Thema and Krazy Boy (Kabelo 'KB' Ngakane. See an interview we had with Nonhle here and the full list of nominees.

Nigerian artistes did very well, the best Kwaito award went to Namibia (again) and best dance as well. The best female award went to one of the ladies of Bang Entertainment in Mozambique as well. One new Zimbabwean artiste felt greedy and took two awards, yay for Zimdancehall! P-Square won the best video but which of their awesome videos from the Game Over was chosen?
Find out below

The award winners are

The Pan-African KORA All-Africa Music Awards returns this year with a bang. Various nominations were sent by country to a panel representing the Kora Music Awards (also referred to as the African Grammy's). You can see the list of nominees for non-regional categories (many of whom are in the running for the best African artiste or group by region). Unlike some of the other awards ceremonies this year, the nominees consist of groups from all over Africa, irregardless of genre, style, language, popularity, reputation or country.

Here are the nominees for Best African Artiste/group for Central, East, Southern and West Africa.

Nominee name (artiste/group) - name of song - name of country

The Pan-African KORA All-Africa Music Awards returns this year with a bang. There is even a US$1 million cash prize. The Kora Awards is in some legal wranglings with the Cross River State government over their chosen venue, which initially was in Calabar but CEO Ernest Adjovi and the organizers want to organize the event in Lagos instead. I hope these cases are settled amicably and the KORA awards take place in December this year. After all, the nominees are out. You can see the nominees for the non-regional categories below and those for regional categories here. I am excited about the nominees, because I hadn't heard of half of them before, and it truely encompasses groups from all over Africa, irregardless of genre, style, language, popularity, reputation or country.

Nominee name (artiste/group) - name of song - name of country

Best Traditional Artiste or Group
Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba - Segu blue - Mali
Freres Guedehoungue - Danger public - Benin
Mamou Sidibe - Mary - Mali
Nicole Amogho - Mbila - Gabon
Santy Dorim - Africa foga - Togo
Teriba - Gan na ho - Benin

See the actual nominees here - the list has been released!

As excitement builds up for the first ever MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMA), the folks at MTVBase Africa are giving fans a chance to be a part of the awards ceremony. MTVBase Africa has created a My Video Award which would be awarded for a viewer created video. Imagine being counted as a MAMA winner just like the likes of D'Banj, Ciara, Jabba T-Pain, and Dama do Bling on 22nd November! Those of you who have been spoofing African songs on Youtube and doing your own dances to these hits, here is your chance to get recognized for it.

You can see the other categories for the MAMAs on this website as well.
Here's the info below from the MAMA website, mama.mtvbase.com.

K'Naan Warsame is one of my favorite rappers. His lyrics are deep, on point, conscious, and real. He combines spoken word artistry with African rhythms and his life experiences. He has gone through a lot and he sums it up in one line - "If I rhymed about home and got descriptive, I'll make 50 Cent look like Limp Bizkit".

Yesterday, I attended my first K'Naan concert. I am not done seeing K'Naan perform because the energy he and his band bring on stage and to the crowd is something music fans want again and again. My friends and I got to the club (where he was going to be performing) around 11 but he didn't show up on stage until 12 midnight. The DJ played some good tunes to keep the crowd dancing but personally I would have rather sat somewhere and listened to some K'Naan tunes in anticipation of his performance. Hearing lines like "I'm so sick my rhyme book throws a fit/ I need a vaccination just so I can spit my own shit" (from African way) have to be better than trying to have a good time while waiting for K'Naan to show up.

African musician award season is in full effect. After the release of the nominees for the Channel O Music Video Awards, and the initial selection of Kora Award 2008 nominees, The Music Of Black Origin (MOBO) awards nominees have been released too. MOBO celebrates genres like hip hop, R&B, gospel, and reggae and other styles that are of Black Origin. The British ceremony has become one of the most respected award ceremonies in recent times. It has had a Best African musician category in years past and winners include Samini (Ghana), and Tuface Idibia (Nigeria).

While we wait for the nominees for the upcoming MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMAs), nominated for the Best African Act in the 2008 MOBO's are the following:

I saw Oliver Mtukudzi perform over the weekend in San Francisco (Yoshi's). I missed a chance to see him perform once and after my friends who attended that concert praised him, I decided not to miss the Tuku man if he came to perform somewhere near me. The jury is out on Tuku, he's great in concert. The man was full of energy, he was great on his guitar and his Black Spirits band backed him up really well.

Oliver Mtukudzi is the best-selling artiste in Zimbabwe and probably its most famous musician. Tuku, as he is affectionately called, was the first African musician to feature on the cover of the TIME AFRICA magazine in April 2003. The central article was entitled 'The People’s Voice?' and talked about how Zimbabwean musicians sing about change amidst all the problems in the country.

Ever wondered what they are playing in Kampala these days? Or Entebbe? Well, we are here to give you an idea. In line with the African music countdowns, here is the July edition of what's hot and popular in Uganda. Some of the musicians on Museke are there and there are the new ones we are all going to be learning about. Henry Tigan is riding with Marlon Asher again while Juliana (the Princess of Tooro) and the Chameleon are doing well too.

Here is the serving/menu/chart/countdown from the Pearl of Africa.

Chameleone - Telina Nyiniyo, Naumia
Juliana - Usiende, Nkyanoonya
Henry Tigan - Omulungi Muzudde, World of Scandals
Bebe Cool - Mukwano Tofayo, Boom shak atak
Obsessions - Bagala Twawula, Begoonza

UPDATED: See the winners here

The nominees for the annual Channel O Music Video awards are out. Voting has already begun and will end on the 24th of September, to vote sms your best video to (+27839208400) or visit the Channel O website (www.channelo.tv ) to vote and for more information about the 2008 awards. The nominees are below.

Best Male Video
Ikechukwu – Wind em well (NIG)
Prokid – Bampa (SA)
HHP – Music & Lights (SA)
Blac – Kwa Masela (TAN)
Simba – Lovely Day (MOZ)

Best Female Video
Lizha James – Nita Mukuma Kwini (MOZ)
Lady May – Chokola (NAM)
Becca – Sugar (GHANA)
KB – Moni Fe Re (SA)
Sasha – Adara (NIG)

We are Bongo flava fans as well. We are here to make sure you are not stuck in Cinderella mode. There is new music out of Tanzania and it rocks. It includes hip-hop, afro-pop and R&B as well. TID came back strong and Lady Jaydee is always a sure thing when it comes to making hit songs. The July Tz countdown has the old, the current and the future.

Here is the countdown/chart/menu

TID - Nyota yako, Watasema sana
Matonya - Anita, Vailet
Lady Jaydee - Siku hazigandi, Nishike mkono
Dully Sykes - Baby candy, Kupenda
Prof Jay - Hapo sawa