The Sunday Mail
Andrew Moyo
THE showbiz world gets ecstatic whenever there is some big award ceremony taking place.
That is how important such events are for the arts industry, not only in Zimbabwe but all over the world.
The hype that surrounds events such as the Grammys, Oscars, Golden Globe Awards and MTV Awards to name just a few internationally recognised ceremonies is so massive to the extent that even artistes who are not nominated are proud to attend.
In Zimbabwe, there are numerous awards ceremonies that are organised every year to honour artistes, just like the recently held National Arts Merit Awards.
When it comes to recognising artistes in the music industry, however, the Zimbabwe Music Awards (Zima) takes centre stage.
It is unfortunate that these awards have been ravaged by numerous challenges since their comeback in 2015, which has seen the organisers bearing the full wrath of critics.
With last year’s edition of the Zimas being held around this period, there has not been any mention of the ceremony, which has raised speculation that the awards might not take place this year.
Speaking to The Sunday Mail Leisure, Zima marketing and public relations executive, Farai Chapoterera, said they were planning to host the event during the first quarter of the year, should funds permit.
She declared, “The event is definitely on. What I can tell you is that Zima 2017 is definitely on but for now I cannot confirm the actual date because there are several things that we need to sort out first.
“We are planning to have it in this first quarter of the year and we already have our systems in place but now the
major drawback is funding.”
She said the lack of funds is the reason behind the postponement of the programme from February.
This is not the first time that the event has failed to take place during a stipulated time-frame. The last edition shifted dates several times due to numerous challenges, including sponsorship issues.
“Our cry is the same as the entire arts industry, we need funding in order to organise this event, which puts our artistes on the spotlight. Music is unifying and we want our corporates to realise that it is beneficial to their brands to come on board and sponsor initiatives such as Zima.
“We are one of the biggest awards brands in the country in terms of viewership and target market, which means that there are so many synergies that we can create with different corporates.”
She said if they had funding, they would have maintained last year’s dates.
“If we had funding we would have held the event this month because it worked for us last year. Remember that our first edition was held in October, then we moved to February for the second edition, so we have discovered that the first quarter of the year is more manageable because this is a slow period for most artistes, which makes it easy for them to come and participate.”
She also blamed insufficient funding on their failure to produce the world class event they had promised to deliver last year.
“Remember last year we had promised to set up a world class stage but unfortunately we failed to do that because of funding issues.”
Chapoterera said they will try and correct some of the mistakes they made during their first two editions.
“We are obviously still finding our feet but we are confident that we are only going to become bigger and I think we are taking baby steps so we are not discouraged that certain things are not as perfect as they are supposed to be, we are just learning from them.
“We are always aiming to do better, always trying to find out what the people want, what our artistes want so that we pick up from there and do better. There are key things that we always want to look at and these include the processes involving entries, adjudication, nominee announcement and production of the event itself.”
She said they will improve the event so as to match international standards.
“We always want to improve the production quality of the show, the choreography and we also want to stay abreast with current trends, which means we will also try to emulate what is happening with the rest of the world while at the same time remaining very Afrocentric.
“Zimbabweans don’t live in a bubble and they see what is going on at other international events and appreciate the trends that are changing in events like ours so we want to be able to deliver that to them as well.”
With many awards ceremonies around the world, the fashion aspect is one of the most important elements which sees many top fashion designers showcasing their talents by dressing the artistes.
Zima has been trying to cultivate that culture but have failed to properly organise the red carpet session of the event.
“The showbiz world is big on fashion and if you noticed, in 2014 and 2015 we tried to bring in some of our local fashion designers to make sure our artistes were dressed.
‘‘Now we want to go a step further and create a platform for our local fashion industry to be showcased because music and fashion always go hand in hand.
“There is always room for improvement and we take all criticism seriously so there are many areas we are looking at in terms of improvement.”
When Zima awards returned, organisers made a commitment that despite obstacles that might come their way, they would strive to make sure that the event takes place. They have since succeeded in hosting two editions but now only time will tell if they will be able to pull it off this year.
