Bebe Cool, Miles shine at Channel O awards
The East African Bashment Crew (E.A.B.C), above, which comprises Ugandan reggae king Bebe Cool and the Kenyan duo Necessary Noise was the big winner at the 2007 Channel O Spirit of Africa Music Awards, held at the Johannesburg City Hall on October 11. E.A.B.C, which was credited as a Kenyan group, won two awards including the top award, Video of the Year for Kube.
In this category, E.A.B.C beat off competition from Nigerian D’banj (Why Me), Mozambique’s Dama Do Bling (Danca Do Remexe), Angola’s Kalibrados, Nigeria’s Maye - I-V and South Africa’s HHP who are Best African Act nominees in the 2007 MTV EMAs.
E.A.B.C also won the Best Director award for Kube. Dancehall king Peter Miles took home the Best Ragga Dancehall Video (Love) beating Ghana’s Batman Samini (African Lady) who beat Jose Chameleone and P-Square at last year’s Mobos in the Best African Act category.
However, E.A.B.C and Peter Miles lost the Best African from East award to Tanzania’s Juma Nature for his song Mugambo. Another East African artiste Nameless won the Best Male Video for Sinzia. Miles’ Love was produced by Kenya’s Ogopa Deejays and videos for both Kube and Love were done by Deddac.
Peter Miles said he was delighted with the results because it shows how Ugandan music is on the rise as far as the international market is concerned. Bebe Cool, who attended the event in South Africa, said he was over the moon for having been nominated for honours in four categories and winning two of them.
The awards event was recorded and will be broadcast on Channel O (channel 320 on DSTV) on October 27 at 9p.m. Hosted by Nigerian singer and songwriter, D’Banj and South African dance artiste DJ S’bu and featuring a slew of storming live performances, the Channel O Spirit of Africa Music Video Awards were dominated by winners from Namibia, Nigeria, Mozambique and Uganda/Kenya. Peter Miles had to beat off competition from Batman Samini’s African lady (Ghana), EABC’s Kube (E.A), Khalaharians’ Give it up (Namibia), Mensa’s If you don’t know (Ghana) and Maye featuring Buff & Igo’s I-V (Nigeria).
On the other hand EABC’s accolade for best-directed video was also contested by artistes from Kalibrado (Angola), D.J Tee (Nigeria), D.J Marcalo (Mozambique), Lara Hollis and Marcel Mouton both from South Africa.
To stand a chance in the awards, videos of respective participants were released between June 2006 and June 2007 and received airplay on Channel O. 46 artistes from 12 African countries were nominated in the respective categories this year. In their fourth year running, the Channel O Spirit of Africa Music Video Awards continue to reflect the diverse and growing music industry on the continent.
“We are seeing videos of increasingly high quality and this is a direct reflection of the industry’s growth,” Channel O General Manager Yolisa Phahle said, adding that, “At Channel O, we look to strike a balance between promoting the up and coming big names of tomorrow alongside established artistes.
This year some of the newer names are also producing outstanding music and high quality videos.”
[Via The Monitor]
