The International Committee of All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC) is pleased to announce a total of 9,076 entries received for possible nominations at the awards ceremony. This is the highest number of entries received by the awards body, since its inception in 2014.
The figure, which was garnered from entertainers across all five African regions, as well as Europe and North America, represented a 2.2 percentage increase from the 8,880 entries recorded in the 2021 edition. The entries submission began on Monday, May 30 and closed by midnight on Friday, August 5.
“This development is a clear indicator that AFRIMA is the pinnacle of African music globally, and Africans value the importance of celebrating themselves, as culture remains one of our strongest tools for global unification, as well as economic growth,” AFRIMA Juror representing diaspora, North America, Hadja Kobele, commented.
Interestingly, from the array, Eastern African region led the trail with 2,890 entries, representing 31.8 percent; while West African region followed closely with 2,863 entries, representing 31.5 percent; and Southern African region joined in the race with 1,659 entries, representing 18.2 percent; while Central Africa comes fourth with 941 entries, representing 10.3 percent; complementing the 373 entries from Northern African entertainers who represented 3.8 percent, while the remaining 349 entries from the diaspora represented 4.1 percent of all total submissions.
ENTRIES BREAKDOWN
In line with the AFRIMA 2022 calendar, a 13-member jury is expected to arrive Lagos, Nigeria, on Thursday August 11, for an 8-day adjudication process that would select the nominees across all existing categories. The jury is composed of seasoned experts across all five regions in the African music industry, as well as the diaspora, specifically North America and Europe.
A world media announcement of the nominees will take place on Monday August 22, 2022 to publicly unveil the nominees. A week after, on Monday August 29, 2022, the AFRIMA Voters Academy, as well as music fans and followers around the globe will begin to participate in the public voting process, which will be held on the AFRIMA website www.afrima.org. Nominees with the highest votes would emerge winners in their respective categories.
The voting process, which closes 24 hours before the awards ceremony, would be monitored and audited by a reputable international auditing firm, PricewaterhouseCoopers.
