MTV Africa Music Awards Press Conference

First, I'd like to say that if the MTV Africa Music Awards ceremony is a fraction as entertaining as the press conference, it will be an eleven on the fabulosity meter!





Da L.E.S showed early at the pressie, as a consummate professional should, quickly meeting and greeting and doing some all-round socializing. Maybe Da L.E.S is working his network skills because we heard Ghetto Ruff mense saying that they are planning on winning a Grammy in 2011 — they've even brought in international talent…


Speaking of international talent, The MAMA host is going to be Wyclef Jean, the multi-platinum selling, Grammy award-winning Haitian artist. Maybe Jozi can get tips from him… Wyclef is said to be excited about his upcoming gig and wants to be involved creatively.

After being swarmed with talented artists such as Zulu Boy, Ishmael, and Lira (who has 2 nominations), we finally got hear what the whole conference was about — The 2nd MTV Africa Music Awards. The 1st event had an astounding one billion viewers. (Umm, that's like nine zeros!) That has to be intimidating to follow up. This time around the event hosted with Zain — the African/Middle-Eastern telco — will be handled a bit differently and even looks prepared to outdo the first.

The build-up to the awards will be smaller than the huge The Game concert they had last year. The "Road to MAMA" will be in smaller nightclubs, showcasing nominees. Also, this year the event will be hosted in Nairobi, Kenya. Eloise Kelly, MTVBase Head of Editorial (and shown here), said that although SA as a venue has never been used, MTV-lovers should "watch this space".


A lot of people were side-eyeing why American artists were nominated in the awards — as they are after all the MTV Africa Music awards — the MTVBase reps answered that although the awards are primarily about this continent, they are also about music and genres that are played daily on the channel.

Da L.E.S & Zama Jobe will be performing at the awards ceremony. They gave the invited media and celebs a taste of what was to come. Unfortunately, none of the nominees from outside SA was present.

Cute dress Zama.


Oskido finished up the event.


Mandla from Gang of Instrumentals (also nominated) looking like someone just called his name.


I'm not sure what Fix from MTVBase was sipping, but it looked a lot more innocent than all the bubbly that they were passing out (which went straight to my head BTW, but let's not mention that).


Before I forget, maybe I should actually mention something about the award nominations that brought us there in the first place! *side eye at myself*

From Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa, I'm proud to say Africa is well represented from coast-to-coast. Of the 50 MAMA nominations, the countries of Nigeria and South Africa tied for most nominations with 15 apiece. Only six went outside of the continent.

2Face from Nigeria single-handedly dominated the nomination list with an impressive 4 nominations! He was nominated for Best Male, Artist of the Year, Best Video, and Best R&B. HHP (South Africa), Nameless (Kenya), and D'Banj (Nigeria) all stood out as well with three nominations each. I wonder if I can find their albums at the mall?

I won't go through all of them here, but you can get the whole list of nominations at the MTVBase website, or their mobile website.