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NAMA to honour 6 personalities
The Herald (Zimbabwe)
February 06, 2008

http://allafrica.com/stories/200802060021.html

The seventh edition of the National Arts Merit Awards - run by the National Arts Council of Zimbabwe - will this year honour six arts personalities who would have excelled in various arts genres over the years.

The award, which falls under the Special Award category, has over the years been won by artists who polled the most number of votes from the public. History had shown that this category was popular with musicians. National Arts Council of Zimbabwe communication and marketing manager, Laura Chiweshe, said the latest decision followed consultations with various stakeholders who felt that other categories were being sidelined.

I n a bid to break monotony, this year's People's Choice Award, organisers say, has been opened to six arts categories -- music, film and television, theatre, dance, visual arts and literary arts.

"We came to the realisation that the music category was scooping the People's Choice Award due to the popularity it has, at the expense of other genres such as visual arts which were being overshadowed hence the introduction of the award in all categories. "This entails that there will be People's Choice Awards in music, film and television, theatre, dance, visual and literary arts," she explained.

Added Chiweshe: "The popularity of musicians stems from the fact that our music has a number of sub genres such as the all popular sungura, gospel, urban grooves, jazz, marabi, rhumba, R'n'B, Chimurenga to mention but a few.

"Music is also played daily on radio with videos being shown on television while artists in other genres lack this kind of exposure."

Chiweshe said voting for the People's Choice Award was through sending text messages to Nama 444 and the name of the artist.

Voting can be done across all networks with people allowed to vote for their favourite artists as many times as they wish.

The voting platform has also been provided by Econet Wireless.

As preparations for this year's Nama award ceremony gathers momentum, nominees will be announced tomorrow afternoon at NACZ offices in Harare. The real award ceremony has been slated for the 7 Arts Theatre in Avondale on February 13 where a series of performances have also been lined up to spice up the event.

Inaugurated in 2002, Nama honours artists who would have excelled in various arts genres the award have become popular both locally and regionally.

Nama has over the years been hailed for being the right platform that inspires artists to strive for excellence and creativity among local artists.

Previous Nama winners include superstar Oliver Mtukudzi, gospel diva Shingisai Suluma and renowned sculptor Dominic Benhura.

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