the 1st Africa Music Awards came off last weekend and we have the list of winners. The 2nd edition is scheduled for 24th October 2009. Congratulations to all the winners

African Artist of the year
* P Square (Nigeria)

African Music Video of the year
* Mr Solek (Nigeria)

African Song of the year
* Do me P-Square (Nigeria)

Okay, we have another countdown of top Ghanaian songs. These are some of the songs that will define the festive season in Accra, Kumasi, Cape Coast, etc. 20 Ghanaian artistes making the waves in this Museke chart/countdown. You sure do want to know so that you are not left behind, whether you are moving forward or changing for the better of Ghana.

It's not the easiest thing to say which song is the most popular, but you can make a case for whichever you choose. And please let us know the glaring omissions we've made.

SABC News reports the death of one of Africa's music legends, Miriam Zenzile Makeba over the weekend at the age of 76. She was affectionately known as Mama Africa and one of the first African divas. She is also nicknamed the Empress of African Song and a pioneer of Afro-pop music.

Makeba was taken to a clinic in Castel Volturno in Italy where she died of a heart attack. She had just sung for half an hour in a concert at Castel Volturno near Naples along with other singers, reports say.

In an earlier interview with Museke.com, South African singer Lira, Lira raved about her talent and praised her legacy. Also, Uganda's Cinderella Sanyu (formerly of Blu3) had also raved about Miriam Makeba's fame.

Youssou Ndour is a candidate for Museke.com's favourite African music legend poll. It's not the only award he's running for these days. A film has been made about him, titled 'I bring what I love'. It is written, directed and co-produced by Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi. The movie chronicles events surrounding the release of Youssou's Egypt album, in which he tried to shed 'Islam' in a positive light. It was highly successful abroad but generated a lot of controversy in his home country of Senegal.

This is not the first time he has appeared in a movie or documentary. In 'Amazing Grace', as Olaudah Equiano, he acted as a central figure in the abolitionist movement in Great Britain and he was also on the movie's soundtrack. In 'Retour à Gorée', he played himself, journeying from the island of Gorée to the USA and back, exploring the origins of jazz, which go back to the era of slave trade in Africa, through a concert performed by an international group of artists. (Info from Wikipedia)

Watch the trailer for the movie and catch it if it's showing somewhere near you.

Uganda's biggest music awards ceremony, the Pearl of Africa Music Awards (PAM Awards) gala came off during the weekend (Saturday) at the Shimoni grounds in Kampala. The Princess of Tooro, Juliana Kanyomozi was the big winner as she went home with both the Best Female Artiste and the coveted Best Artiste/Musician prizes. See the winners of the 2007 edition on Museke.com. The PAM Awards was started in 2003.

Juliana won 3 awards, while newcomers Mozey Radio & Weasel matched her with 3 wins as well, including song of the year for their hit single, Nakudata. Bebe Cool, who is the only Ugandan nominated for an MTV Africa Music Award, also won 3 awards, including that of Best Male Artiste.

See all the nominees for the PAM Awards 2008 and the predictions users made in the run-up to this awards ceremony. An album that was produced as a tribute to Ugandan music great, Philip Lutaaya, won the best album of the year while newcomer Grace Nakimera's Ankufuula video was adjudged the best. Awards were given to musicians who had been the best in Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Tanzania as well.
See all the winners below

Best Hip Hop Single- Soda Jinjale (GNL Zamba feat. Unik)

Best Hip Hop Artiste- Navio,

Best Afro Beat Single- Zuena (Mowzey Radio & Weasel)

Who is the former Miss Tanzania who is now enjoying a successful music career? If you got it right, then you are either from East Africa or a don in African music. Either category is great, but let’s learn a little more about Jacqueline Ntuyabaliwe (better known these days as K-Lynn). Museke.com delved a little deeper into her life, music and her thoughts on the industry. Read the interview transcript below.

Museke.com: Can you tell us about your background and family?
K-Lyinn: I’m the last born in a family of three girls, my father is a doctor and my mother who passed away in ‘95 was a nurse. I was born in Dar (Dar Es Salaam), Tanzania.

Museke.com: How did you get interested in music and when did you realize you wanted to take up a music career?
K-Lyinn: I always loved music and since the age of maybe 6 or 7 I knew that I wanted to become a singer.

We are enjoying this awards season very much. We've gone through Ghana, South Africa, many Nigerian ones, Sierra Leone and we are awaiting the winners in Uganda and Namibia. You can click the countries to see the winners from each country. We can't leave out Kenya and when you talk about the land of genge, benga, kapuka and boomba music, the Kisima Music Awards is the biggest show. It rewards mostly Kenyan musicians as well as those from Uganda and Tanzania. East Africa unite! The show would be held on 29th November.

According to the Kisima website, The General public within East Africa votes through the Mobile phone by SMS to a short code number and Internet for the regions without access to the short code. SMS Platform Short Code for public vote to cover the East Africa region 4142 - KENYA 7197 - UGANDA 15550 - TANZANIA To vote for your preferred Nominee, text the word Kisima –followed by the Nominee Category Code i.e 36a Send a text ‘kisima 36a’ to the short code within your region. Any other voter outside the East African region will only be allowed to vote online through our website.. There is a "How to vote" link on the Kisima website

Here are the nominees arranged by name of musician, song/track, and sms code

Arguably the biggest Nigerian musician this year, 9ice, has won his first major international award. He was named the recipient of the award for the Best African Act category at the 13th annual Music Of Black Origin (MOBO) awards, held at Wembley Arena, London, on Wednesday, October 15, 2008. Abolore Adigun Akande emerged victorious with almost half of the votes cast over Asa, P-Square, D'Banj, Jozi, Wahu, HHP (Jabba), Jozi, JuaCali, and Faze.

9ice has had a remarkable year on the back of the ever popular Gongo Aso hit, as well as tracks like Street Credibility featuring Tuface Idibia, Party Rider, Photocopy and Wedding Day. He also got married to Oluwaseun Toni Payne-Akande.

The full list of award winners at the British Music of Black Origin (MOBO) awards are

A week ago, I went to see the Grammy winning Soweto Gospel Choir perform at Stanford's Memorial Church. This is not just any choir, this is a Grammy Award winner born and bred in probably the most melodious corner of the world, Southern Africa. I was very excited to see them that I got lyrics to their songs which were not on Museke.com (yet) just so I could sing along and show them how much of a fan I am. Eventually, they didn't perform any of my top 3 SGC favorites but they gave a marvelous account of themselves. If you hear that they are coming to a venue near you, you should go see them too.

The Soweto Gospel Choir is in the midst of their "African Spirit" tour which comprises of 48 dates from early October at New York's Carnegie Hall till December 23 with a concert in the Disney Hall in Los Angeles. "African Spirit" is the name of their latest CD. "African Spirit" won the 2008 Grammy Award for best traditional world music, following their success in the same category in 2007 with their CD "Blessed."

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