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