The Sunday Mail
The Zimbabwe Music Awards (Zima) will be re-launched on May 28, giving a breath of fresh air to the local music scene which has been without a meaningful awards ceremony for quite a while now. The awards will be presented by Jive Zimbabwe, an arts promotions company.At their peak, the Zima were the talk of town, and given the controversies that have been dogging the National Arts Merit Awards, local musicians can look forward to the return of the awards ceremony, wholly dedicated to music.
In its five-year life span, that is in its previous life, Zima gave both burgeoning and seasoned musicians reason to produce well-polished materials.
The honorary affair posed as a platform to separate pretenders from contenders, never mind some of the shortcomings that come with the event.
In a way, Zima further spurred the grudge that existed between sungura virtuoso Alick “Cheso” Macheso and the inimitable Tongai “Igwe” Moyo in 2007, after the former walked away with all four awards in the categories that the two musicians had been nominated.
Such was the power of the awards that the artistes (Cheso and Igwe) could neither greet nor share the same room after the ceremony.
The late Igwe accused organisers of the event of being biased and taking sides in the intense ‘‘war’’ between him and Macheso.
In the moment of the madness, the Kwekwe-bred musician threatened that he would never again take part in the Zima awards ceremony before he made a U-turn and promised to wrestle the awards from the sungura maestro (Cheso) the following year.
Unfortunately, the Macheso’s 4-0 massacre (in terms of the awards of the night) marked the end of the music awards ceremony that had taken over from the Tinotenda Siyabonga Annual Musical Awards (Tsama) ceremony in 2002.
Tsama, which was a brainchild of broadcaster Themba Mkanda, only managed to survive for three years before mismanagement issues buried the awards. Tsama had its glittering moments besides the obvious controversy about winners and ceremony execution that follows awards internationally.
Struggles to secure sponsorship
Despite providing a unique event for the music industry at large, which could have easily attracted sponsors, Zima organisers grappled with challenges that saw them failing even to source trophies or statuette for their winners.
During the last episode of the event, a single statuette rotated among the winners and no one took anything home. To date, the Zima 2007 winners do not have anything in their cabinets to show for their success.
In 2008, there was a promise that the awards would be held in Bulawayo as a way of showing their (Zima) national appeal. But the event did not take place in Bulawayo or the traditional venue in Harare.
Since then, about three different characters have come on board to try and give the kiss of life to the once prestigious awards ceremony, but the efforts have been futile.
Names of the people that have tried to bring back to life the once envied awards ceremony include comedian Carl Joshua Ncube (2010), Joseph Nyadzayo (2011) and Chamu Chiwanza (2012).
But they failed in this quest due to lack of funds.
Fresh attempt to revive the awards ceremony.
A fresh pair of hands has come in to attempt and revive Zima.
Tafara Mbaya, who was one of the founder members of the Zima award ceremony in 2002, told The Sunday Mail Leisure that the awards ceremony is back with a bang.
Mbaya indicated that his team had been working on modalities to return the event permanently.
The Zima producer said mistakes in the previous editions, coupled with lessons learnt from neighbouring countries, were going to guarantee fortitude of the once prestigious honourary event.
“We have been reflecting internally on how we can make the event big and more appealing. I know promises have been made before to bring back the event with nothing coming to fruition. However, I want to guarantee you that has come to past, the event is making its return this year,” he said.
The producer added that he had been abroad over the past years doing some research on how musical awards ceremonies in countries are held.
And issues of funding that led to the collapse of the initial awards ceremony, he said, were now a thing of the past.
The Zima producer added that the now rebranded musical awards ceremony would officially be launched on May 28.
The launch ceremony will be characterised by an exhibition of Zimbabwean music from the 1960’s to date in the form of pictures and music instrumentals.
“We have now raised enough money to sustain the continuous running of the event. Previously we relied solely on sponsors, but that is no longer the case. We are now operating as a company throughout the year and have a healthy balance sheet for the event. However, this does not mean we are closing doors for sponsors, we still need them to come on board so that the event becomes a success,” said Mbaya.
This year’s edition of the Zima will honour music recorded and released recently and it will also honour one of Zimbabwe’s musical legends with the lifetime achievement award.
This event will be held later during the year at the glamorous 7 Arts Theatre and will be a strictly-by-invitation affair.
Winners’ prizes
Musicians that will emerge winners in their respective categories will have to be contend with walking away with statuettes, since there will be no prize money attached to awards.
This phenomenon is, however, not peculiar to Zima alone. In a number of countries, developed nations included, for such events, the trophy or statuette is all that the artists battle for.
“It’s difficult to attach prize money to these awards. Doing so only serves to create problems. We need our people, both musicians and Zimbabweans, to understand the value and significance of this award just like is the case with the Grammy’s or the SAMAs,” said Mbaya.
Adjudication controversies
The adjudication process of various awards ceremonies in the country has proved to be a contentious issue.
Take, for instance, the National Arts Merit Awards (Nama) organisers have made it clear that they do not intend to reveal their adjudication panel. This is despite the fact that Nama has gone on to shortlist nominees that would have not submitted applications or in some instances, gone on to award undeserving characters (no need to mention names).
But the Zima official reckons for their event, the concern has been addressed since they have adopted “foolproof measures”.
“Previously the adjudication process has been controversial and we have since addressed the concern. We will be holding a workshop with the media, musicians, musical producers and other relevant stakeholders for them to get an understanding of how we will be operating and for us to get to know what they expect from us,” said Mbaya.
According to Zima, a panel of judges that will be reviewed annually will be selected. They then will be given time to make a selection of songs in each category produced and released within the stipulated period.
The adjudication committee will only get to be known to the public on the night of the event, so that it is not compromised in the month of executing its mandate.
Also, to further enforce transparency, the panel’s results will be collated by an independent audit firm that will be involved in the selection process from day one.
Other music awards
Several music awards targeting specific genres have been held, but there is nothing much to celebrate about the ceremonies.
The Zim Hip-Hop Awards were shrouded in controversy and remain secluded from the mainstream industry.
The Zim-dancehall awards also kicked off on a low note. The ceremony was characterised by violence and confusion among the organisers.
One hopes the return of Zima and the launching of Wene Music Awards will help revive the spirit of perfection within artistes in the industry.
Rooftop Promotions recently unveiled Wene Music Awards in a bid to honour musicians for various achievements.
Music fans have of late been complaining of the gradual decline in the quality of local music. Half-baked albums now find their way onto record bar shelves at ease.
This is happening in the same country that produced music legends like Oliver Mtukudzi, Thomas Mapfumo, Leonard Dembo, Marshall Munhumumwe, Leonard Zhakata, Simon Chimbetu and James Chimombe.
Previous winners of the Zima awards include Alick Macheso, MacDonald “Macdee” Chidavaenzi, Africa Revenge, Oliver Mtukudzi and the late Leonard Dembo and Tongai Moyo.
The theme for ZIMA 2014 is “Then to Now”.
