Afrotainment Museke Online Africa Music Awards Winners ceremony!

One of Museke's proudest moments!

DR Congo crooner Fally Ipupa, Senegal’s Viviane Ndour and Didier Awadi were the top winners at the 2011 Afrotainment Museke Online African Music Awards that took place on September 24 in New York City. The ceremony happened amidst cheers and proud celebrations from fans of African music and African musicians alike. Afrotainment’s studios were given a makeover in preparation for the event that will certainly have left a great impression on all involved. Benin’s very own Angelique Kidjo, gave an impromptu acapella performance following her acceptance of her award. Kidjo was recipient of the Afrotainment MOAMA 2011’s Lifetime Achievement Award - her first ever, which she said she was glad that it was an award bestowed upon her by fellow Africans.

The show was hosted by Afrotainment presenters, Zimbabwe’s Farai Gundan - who was dressed by Nigerian haute couture designer Alphadi - and Zambia’s Tivo Shikapwashya. The red carpet ceremony was hosted by Sophy Aiida where she interviewed various African musicians and other dignitaries. She also interviewed various sponsors and guests during the awards ceremony. All of this was broadcasted live on Afrotainment Channels 667 and 751 on Dish Networrk in North America and also streamed live on awards.afrotainment.us, moamas.com and museke.com.

The evening’s performances were by award winners Viviane Ndour and Fally Ipupa, as well as by Ghana’s Blitz the Ambassador, Rwanda’s Iyadede, Cameroun’s Les Nubians, and the Washington DC-based Les Belles d’Afrique. Performances of the evening were highly collaborative in spirit: Fally Ipupa was joined by Iyadede on stage as he sang his hit song Chaise Electrique and then by Les Belles d’Afrique as he performed his club banger, Sexy Dance. Blitz the Ambassador also joined Les Nubians on stage while they were performing their set.

Senegal dominated the award winners, led by the gorgeous Viviane Ndour, who finished with three awards - Female Artist of the Year, best music video for Sama Champion and Afro- rhythms song of the year for Fima Tollu. Fally Ipupa emerged as Artist of the year, as well as sharing the Best African collaboration award with Nigeria’s J. Martins for the still highly popular remix to the latter’s Jukpa banger, as well as Popular Song of the Year for his dance floor special, Sexy Dance. Nigeria also had a lot of winners, including 2Face Idibia for Male Artist of the year and P-Square as Group of the year. There were winners from every African sub-region, as well as the Diaspora, which fully celebrates African music. The full list of winners can be found at moamas.com.

Ato Ulzen-Appiah, CEO of Museke Inc, enthused; “We are all proud to honour the best of African music from last year and this was a big and monumental day in continuing to promote African music to music fans everywhere. We particularly enjoyed the collaborations and seeing various stakeholders in the African music industry network”.

Afrotainment’s Eric Noue spoke further on the success of the show; “We are excited about the fact that we were able to translate a vision into reality through an unprecedented show that was aired Live on TV nationwide in the US and in streaming worldwide on the internet. We also take this opportunity to thank our key sponsors: Western Union, Arik Air and Dish Network who decided to come along with us on this journey"

All in all, it was an evening enjoyed by all who attended, and it left many believing that the next Afrotainment Museke Online African Music Awards will only get bigger and better.

For more information regarding the MOAMAs, check out moamas.com and email awards at museke.com.