2017 NAMA’s not to be hosted at Swakopmund

The organising committee of the Namibia Music Awards (NAMA’s0) hosted an information sharing session in Swakopmund at Swakopmund Sands Hotel this past Saturday with artist based in the Erongo region as part of the ongoing NAMA information session with potential artists.

The main aim of the information session was to ensure that all the artists and entertainment journalists were acquainted with the NAMA entry pre-requisites, rules and regulations, and how to enter via online. The NAMA call to entry opened on 19 October and will be closed on 2 December this year which means the artist who have not entered yet an approximate time of three weeks in total. At the information sharing session the artists/musicians that were present had many questions to ask particularly on the entry procedures and rules and regulations of the competition as well as how winners for certain categories are chosen.
According to John Ekongo the Corporate Communications Officer of MTC and also member of the organizing committee, all recordings submitted for the Namibia Music Awards must have been commercially released (in other words first made available for sale by any recognized retail trade) in Namibia during the period 1 December 2015 to 30 November 2016, “but only commercially released during the entry period will qualify for entry on condition that written proof of release details for the entry period is submitted together with the fully completed entry”.
Ekongo said Public votes will commence in February 2017 (date to be announced), the public can use the following codes to vote: Song of the Year (Voting ID -SOY), Most Disciplined Artist of the Year (Voting ID – MDA), Best Live Performance (Voting ID – BLP), Best Musical Event of the Year (Voting ID – BME), Radio DJ of The Year (Voting ID – RDJ), Entertainment Journalist of the Year (Voting ID – EJY) and Pan African Artist of the Year (Voting ID – AAY).
NAMA 2017 take place on 28 and 29 April 2017, the venue will be announced before the end of the month. The NAMA steering committee are reviewing proposals from various locations to host NAMA 2017, the towns that are in the bid for hosting the NAMA 2017 are Ongwediva, Windhoek and Oshakati. “Swakopmund have the perfect venue for hosting the NAMA but it is very unfortunate to say that Swakopmund will not host the NAMA next year because they did not give us a bid this year” said Ekongo.
Online entries can be made at www.namaentries.com and you can find the entry forms on www.nama.com.na .