By Iminza Keboge
Published June 19, 2019
The 14th edition of the annual Gospel music event known as Groove Awards went down in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, on June 1, 2019.
Touted as being the biggest gospel music celebratory event in East Africa, Groove Awards 2019 was held on the theme, Better Together.
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The Gala Awards ceremony was held on June 1, 2019 at Movenpick Hotel in Westlands district within the Nairobi metropolis.
Here is the complete list of those who were announced as the Groove Awards 2019 winners:
- Artist of the Year: Eunice Njeri
- Song of the Year: Vimbada by Jabidii, Moji Short Babaa
- Music Video of the Year: Nifanane Nawe by Wahu Kagwi
- Young Groover of the Year: Amani Gracious
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- Reggae/ Ragga Song of the Year: China by Jabidii
- Teens Choice Song of the Year: Vimbada by Jabidii, Moji Short Babaa
- Collabo of the Year: Vimbada by Jabidii, Moji Short Babaa
- Dance Style/ Song of the Year: Vimbada by Jabidii, Moji Short Babaa
- Outstanding Contributor: R-Kay
- Diaspora Artist of the Year: Benachi
- Hypeman/ MC of the Year: Timeless Noel
- Song Writer of the Year: Pitson
- Online/ Digital Personality of The Year: Kabi and Milly for the WaJesus Family
- Video Producer of the Year: Steve Mugo
- The Audio Producer of The Year: Gideon Kimanzi
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- Breakthrough Female Artist of The Year: Emma Omonge
- Breakthrough Male Artist of The Year: Baraka Musiq
- Breakthrough Dj of the Year: Ken the Dj
- Media Personality of The Year: Syombua Mwele
- Praise and Worship Song of the Year: Zaidi na Zaidi by Eunice Njeri
- Nyanza Counties Song of the Year: Conqueror by Fenny Kerubo
- Rift Valley Song of the Year: Kapchi by Mum Cherop
- Eastern Counties Song of the Year: Kyaaa kyaa Ngai by Stephen Kasolo
- Coastal Song of the Year: Nakupenda by Eve Bahati
- Central Song of the Year: Mutheani by Phyllis Mbuthia and Sammy Irungu
- Western Song of the Year: Lwanda ni Yesu by Timothy Kitui and Ali Mukhwana.
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The post Gospel Music Awards Winners Announced appeared first on ArtMatters.Info.
A popular Afrobeat musician and an award-winning choreographer have called upon leaders across Africa to urgently invest in agriculture and rural development to create opportunities in support of the millions of young people who will soon enter the job market.
According to 2019 Rural Development Report: Creating Opportunities for Rural Youth by IFAD, Nearly a billion of the world’s 1.2 billion youth live in developing countries; about half of them in rural areas where they are most often poor, lack economic opportunities and face constraints to access land, services, technology and training.
Mr Eazi and Silver, two Afrobeat stars, are participating in AGRF as part of an IFAD youth-focused campaign called Our Future is Here that includes a TikTok “dance challenge” that calls on people around the world to make their moves matter by recording a 15-second dance video to Mr Eazi’s song, Freedom.
Bit after bit and beat after beat, the self-proclaimed Kisumu President is slowly finding his place not only in the Kenyan music industry but also worldwide.
Born and raised in Kisumu, Gabiro has not only had the chance to work with Kidis but also big names like Wyre, Ketchup and even Uganda’s Nutty Neithan; he
Music may be the most popular art form in Kenya. However, making a living from music business in the age of cassette tapes, CDs and DVDs was always tough. But it has become even tougher now in the era of Digital Disruption where YouTube and livestreaming have failed to deliver the fruits of the Promised Land to musicians who, like everyone else, still have to pay the bills for housing, education, medication and other living expenses.
However, some eight months later, the founding Chair of TAMCO, on his way back to Nairobi from Thika where he had participated in an event to help raise funds to meet the hospital bill of the child of a fellow musician known as Peter Kiggia, he of the Wendo wa Cash Money tune fame, De Mathew perished in a road accident. It was on a August 18 when the artist who is reported to have recorded more than 375 songs in 50 albums over a 33-year period died on Thika-Kenol Road near Blue Post Hotel.
Fifth born child of Lucy Wanjiku and Mathew Nganga, John De Mathew attended Mukurwe-ini Primary and Naaro and Igikiro secondary schools before going to the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where he hawked vegetables at Soko Mjinga market and meat in Kariobangi before he relocated to Nakuru town where he sold Sandak plastic shoes for a living.
“As a nation, we were privileged to have had such a brilliant artist who played a big role in promoting our African cultural heritage through his music,” Uhuru Kenyatta, Kenya’s President, said of the demise of De Mathew. “We have lost an icon in the music industry. DeMathew championed and played a big role in preserving our cultural heritage.”
A percussionist who has been travelling the world to perform, educate in the art of dance, arrange music for international artist, release albums and produce music for artists from all around the world over the past 30 years has died.
World music label, ARC Music of Britain, is set to release two 
The nine tracks on Dance to the Full Moon that a playing time of 59 minutes (54:38 minutes, to be specific!), include:
Popular Tanzanian gospel singer 
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So where is the problem? What is wrong with thanking Kenya the country, the leaders of Kenya, the citizens of Kenya, the medics of Kenya for receiving, taking pity on and nursing Mhando back to good health and singing career?
A day or so later the Jawabu Studio’s post is pulled down by YouTube over what is said to be copyright infringement and the message–‘Video unavailable. This video contains content from Ngomma VAS, who has blocked it on copyright grounds’–is posted in its place.
He says he wrote the second verse of Ulindwe Kenya, a song he says Mhando had wanted to dedicate to Official Opposition leader Raila Amolo Odinga but that he had successfully persuaded her to dedicate it to Kenyatta as the President of Kenya.
When things came to a head, Siali, who holds the copyright to the song via a certificate issued by Kenya Copyright Board, says Kasolo sent him Sh10000 via M-Pesa but that he returned the money insisting he what he terms as a 50/50 right to the song with not Kasolo but Mhando.
Mboob, who made his love of music his vocation and became a fan favourite in The Gambia and West Africa before relocating to England, says he learnt how to make music from his father, master percussionist Doudou Mboob.
4). Yarabi
8). Silafandor
A Kenyan teenager has beaten a field of eight nominees to seize the Revelation of the African Continent award by public vote.
5. Best Male Artist in Northern Africa
A new distribution platform aimed at connecting independent content producers with audiences across Africa has been launched.
A leading world music label, 
Also released on January 24, 2020 alongside Taiko Do: Echo of the Soul is a 10-track recording titled Amália Classics on Portuguese Guitar.
A new African music album that calls on humanity to 
Awale Jant Band is a combination of Biram Seck’s Jant Band and Thibaut Remy’s London group, Awale, that comprises African, French, British and Senegalese musicians who have been performing over the last 10 years in London.
The tracks on Yewoulen are
Musicians in Kenya interested in performing across Spain through an initiative that seeks to give more
“We are delighted about this exchange between Kenya and Spain,” says Donald Otoyo of Permanent Presidential Music Commission of Kenya (PPMC) that is collaborating with Spanish public diplomacy institution called Casa África on its music cultural cooperation project, Vis a Vis. “The Festival Directors will come to experience the live music scene, connect with music business as well as our hospitality as Kenyans and two of Kenya’s outstanding bands shall have the opportunity to spread Kenyan music in Spain by participating in 10 – 15 festivals in Spain in July 2020.”
This year marks the 11th edition of the annual Vis a Vis cultural exchange which follows on from other collaborations with other African countries including Senegal, Cape Verde, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Equatorial Guinea and Angola.
While PPMC is a Department within the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage mandated to promote the development of Music and dance, spearhead the growth and development of the music industry and to contribute to the understanding and preservation of Kenyan musical arts and expression, Casa África is a public diplomacy consortium at the service of Spanish foreign policy.
A band that has wowed audiences–from The Carnival in Rio, a private wedding in India and to London’s Royal Festival Hall–with its diverse technical skills is set to launch a 
Directed by Andrew Spicer, the official video for Black Seas received an Honourable Mention in the UK Seasonal Short Film Festival 2020, was a Rolling Stone Germany Song of the Day and Folk Radio UK Tune of the Day.
Anthony Musembi
The Zimbabwe Music Rights Association (Zimura), in an interview with The Herald newspaper of Harare, has condemned the Kenyan musician’s action of appropriating the late Oliver Mtukudzi’s popular HIV/AIDS-awareness song, 
The statement says that:
Just how do supposedly reputable mainstream or legacy media like BBC, Standard or Citizen TV promote what could be described as ‘pirated’, ‘plagiarised’ or ‘contraband’ works on their platforms, going as far as describing those who desecrate intellectual property rights of others as ‘national sensation’ as
Ogova ondego (OO): Hello. Is that Anthony Musembi?
OO: I have watched your Natamani Wamebarikiwa video that sounds suspiciously like Mary Atieno Ominde’s Wamebarikiwa wanaotafuta Uso Wake Mungu Baba that,
An album that spans world, 
Almost 40 days after President Uhuru Kenyatta’s 
KAMP, MCSK and PRISK have issued a joint statement on the status of the Sh100 Million to the ‘artists, actors and musicians’ saying it is yet to be availed to them for distribution to their members.
Amina Mohamed, the Sports, Culture and Heritage Minister, said the Work For Pay stimulus package was in line with the Executive Order issued by President
These artistic productions, Dr Mohamed said, would be “carried through various assets set up by the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage such as ‘KULTURE TV’ and other collaborative media outlets”; that “The objective is to continue developing and nurturing talent to ensure that the sector remains a significant contributor to our economy post-COVID”; and that the Together at Home campaign would “use entertainment to centralise three crucial aspects of our society: the importance of new avenues for work, creative community education and sustained mental well-being for all
Through Kenya Association of Music Producers (KAMP), Music Copyright Society of Kenya (MCSK) and Performers Rights Society of Kenya (PRISK), the musians have distanced themselves from the Work For Pay Sh100 million stimulus package for artists, actors and musicians.
KAMP, MCSK and PRISK appealed to the Minister for Sports, Culture and Heritage to include them among implementers of ‘the President’s well intended gesture’ to the creative sector.
The launch of the programme was followed by several 60-minute webinars to sensitise the public on the programme May 11 – 17, 2020.
In his State of the Nation Address on January 14, President Uhuru Kenyatta said, “To receive royalties, Content Service Providers will be required to channel all payments of royalties through a single, centrally managed account at the Kenya Copyright Board. This will enable oversight by the regulator and ensure that the collection and distribution accounts are easily auditable. The Kenya Copyrights Board, with assistance of the Ministry of ICT, has already reviewed and agreed on the Tariffs for 2020. These tariffs are to be gazetted and will form the basis on which compliance will be monitored. In this regard, I direct the Ministry of ICT, in consultation with the AG’s office, to ensure the tariffs are gazetted within the next 30 days.”
During the April 6 address, Kenyatta directed the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage to set aside an extra Sh100 Million from the Sports Fund as a safety net for artists, actors and musicians against the effects of the Coronavirus. However, a month later, following complaints as to why the money the President had said would be available immediately to enable ‘artists, actors and musicians’ continue entertaining the public through TV, radio and the internet hadn’t been disbursed, the Government changed the pledged Sh100 Million from a COVID-19 grant to a conditional work-for-pay three-month stimulus programme.
Amina Mohamed said not just musicians but artists drawn from various forms of creativity, would “be required to produce works that entertain and educate Kenyans and the world on the safety and health precautions to stop the spread of COVID-19. These artistic productions will be carried through various assets set up by the Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage such as “KULTURE TV” and other collaborative media outlets.”
London (UK)-based ARC Music is set to release two music albums from 
The music of Ssewa Ssewa, who seeks to promote Ugandan traditions while modernizing and interweaving them with other international genres to renew the spirit of his indigenous culture, is a cross-cultural marriage between Uganda and the world.
The opening choral track Mayibabo sets the scene with a heartfelt tribute to Vusa Mkhaya’s inspiration, his grandmother:
Mkhaya’s artistry is driven by an unquenchable thirst for sound. At the onset of his professional career he ventured from Bulawayo in Zimbabwe to Vienna in Austria with his a cappella group, Insingizi. It was while here that he discovered a deeper connection to classical, jazz and the many musical avenues the city had to offer. He has since enjoyed fusing these styles with his own music. He has worked with a wide range of musicians and productions, amassing a hugely impressive body of work.
