L-R: Regional Director and Co-Producer, Micheal Strano, CEO, PRM-Africa and Executive Producer AFRIMA, Mike Dada, Co-Producer, Petra Seseli and Director Brand Communication and-Sponsorship, Matlou-Tsotetsi
THE race to impress has begun for PRMAfrica, the consultancy company that won the right to host the much-anticipated All Africa Music Award (AFRIMA) for Nigeria.
According to the organizers, the first in the lineup of activities that will culminate in the maiden edition of the award show in October is the ‘On the Way to AFRIMA Concert’ scheduled to take place in July in New York, USA.
Scheduled as part of the series of high-value concerts billed for major African and international cities, the New York event will be the first to hold outside the continent in the run up to AFRIMA 2014, which will be hosted in Lagos, Nigeria, come October.
The organizers further revealed that the concert is part of the awareness and razzmatazz built around AFRIMA for Africans in the Diaspora and the international communities.
The road show, according to Mr. Mike Dada, CEO of PRMAfrica and Executive Producer of AFRIMA, is expected to continue in other cities, including Douala, Kampala, Dakar, London, Paris and Johannesburg.
According to him, the New York concert will hold at the prestigious 15,000- capacity Barclays Arena, the landmark indoor entertainment space in Brooklyn, New York, where international music superstars like Beyonce, Jay Z and Youssou N’Dour have played. The arena also hosted the 2013 MTV Video Music Awards and is a regular venue for the NBA games.
Nigeria, last year, won the hosting right for the award for five consecutive years, having defeated South Africa, Namibia, Gabon and Kenya.
The delegates were a mix bag of professionals in music, entertainment, marketing and media, representing SADC, the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Arab Maghreb Union (AMU) and ECOWAS countries.
Last week, a foremost US-based live event production team visited the Nigeria office of PRMAfrica. The visit may not be unconnected with possible partnership for New York concert.
However, Dada, who would not disclose details of the meeting, stated that “All I can say is that we are excited that the momentum is building for 2014 AFRIMA. Many stakeholders and practitioners in the music industry, both within Africa and outside the continent, are already contacting us to be a part of this ennobling awards project.
“The pool of the Africans in the Diaspora living in the US is staggering and adds to the number of non-African fans that the continent’s music artistes have in America. So, with this, you’ll get a better understanding of why the New York leg of ‘On the Way to AFRIMA Concert’ must hold in a venue like Barclays Arena”, said Ms. Adenrele Niyi, AFRIMA programme director.
According to Niyi, “The concert is going to feature 80 percent performances from some of our best talents in Africa and 20 percent performances from international artistes. Our host for the concert will certainly be one of the top names from contemporary pop culture or TV/movie. We are in talks with artistes’ managements and the artistes too. It is guaranteed that this concert, as well as other aspects of AFRIMA 2014, will be memorable.”
AFRIMA’s Co-producer and regional director, East Africa, Mr. Michael Strano, reiterated the uniqueness of the awards. “The African continent has had her fair share of awards events. However, AFRIMA stands out by being the only one that will honour music professionals who operate behind the scene hitherto ignored, perhaps, because other event organisers largely see their activities as trivial. For the first time, honour will be accorded to song writers and music/entertainment journalists,” he said.
If the vision of the creators is anything to go by, then, AFRIMA is expected to provide opportunities to showcase the strength of Africans for global competitiveness and project their musical and cultural values in an unambiguous manner that reflects the continent’s heritage and bright future.
PRMAfrica has also assured that the live awards event will be broadcast to 700 million viewers across the world on 109 TV stations in 84 countries.
