Stitch Fray dominates Urban Music People Awards nominations
Musician and producer Stitch Fray dominated the Urban Music People (UMP) Awards nominations which were announced during the UMP Fashion Night and Media Awards held at Underground Car Park in Blantyre on Sunday.
Stitch Fray received five nominations in the categories of Best Producer, Best Video with his song ‘Zoti Ndimakukonda’, Artist of the Year, Song of the Year and Best R&B/Afro Pop Artist.
The artist recently performed at the Fashion4Change at HS Winehouse in Blantyre and Blantyre Arts Festival.
There are 17 categories for nominations.
Macelba, whose song ‘Apse Mtima’ is enjoying airplay, has also enjoyed a fair share of the nominations in the categories of Best Rap/Hip Hop, Artist of the Year and Song of the Year.
Gwamba, who prides in winning more UMP Awards, is also part of the nominations in the categories of Best Live Act, Best Collabo in the song ‘Mr Yesu’, in which he collaborated with Kell Kay, Best Gospel and Album of the Year for his album Jesus Is My Boss.
The other artist who has done well in the nominations is Tay Grin, who has got nominations in the categories of Best Live Act, Best Video of the Year for the song ‘Tola’ featuring Tanzania’s Vanessa Mdee, Song of the Year and Artist of the Year.
Rapper Fredokiss, who on Saturday attracted a gigantic audience during his free show at Masintha Ground in Lilongwe, has also not been left out of the nominations.
He has got nominations in the categories of Best Live Act, Artist of the Year and Best Video of the Year.
However, the nominations have received mixed reactions, with some quarters questioning names in some categories, including Best Gospel Act, which features Miracle Chinga alongside Gwamba, Onesimus, Saxcess and Suffix.
“To me, this is Urban music so I am wondering why we have Miracle Chinga on the list of Best Gospel,” said one artist on social media.
The voting process for UMP Awards nominees closed on Thursday after 12 days of voting.
The UMP Awards and Festival will be held on November 18 at Bingu International Convention Centre in Lilongwe and November 19 at Blantyre Sports Club in Blantyre, respectively.
The UMP Fashion Night saw designers shining with their designs.
However, the event did not attract a huge audience.
The decoration during the event was on point and the organisation was perfect.
However, the organisers failed towards the end when they did not act professionally when Erik Paliani was performing.
Paliani, one of the talented artists the country has ever produced, performed late— close to midnight— impressing the audience.
He performed in front of a few people as many had left but this did not put him off.
When Paliani was performing, some people started removing different items which showed lack of professionalism on the part of the organisers.
“Blantyre is interesting; it was great and different on the Underground car park. It was a bit challenging but I appreciate UMP for [giving me] this opportunity,” Paliani said.
Meanwhile, Times Television presenter Blak Jak was voted the 2017 Best TV Presenter during media awards.
“I would like to thank God for the talent and life. I would like to thank my parents for bringing me to life and Times Group for seeing talent in me,” Blak Jak, real name Fatsani Kalonda, said.
Blak Jak, who is also an artist, revealed that he would take a holiday to pursue further studies next year.
He hailed people for voting for him to defend the award he also won last year.
The Best Club DJ is DJ Maya while the Best Radio DJ is Joy Nathu, who has defended the award, having also won it last year.
The other winners are Howard Mlozi (Best Print Journalist) and Mpho Musowa (Best Online Journalist).
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