The Mdundo Music awards announcements took place yesterday evening at the on-going Ongea Music Summit. The music service company seeks to increase music reach and generate revenue for artists who are signed up.
Mdundo being music download service, at the end of the year, the numbers check in and the tally helps paint a picture of the digital music consumption and which artists get the most support.
2014 to this day, the digital music awards have evolved from the number of artists signed up, to access by intended audience. The Internet is readily available and way cheaper so artists should lobby their fans to buy music more.
“The philosophy behind our awards is to acknowledge musicians based on the real consumption of their music, instead of a panel or a voting process, which is often the practice” commented Shiko Koinange
King Kaka aka Rabbit scooped 4 out of 7 awards in the inaugural awards. 2017, the story is different. Willy Paul took home not one but two awards for most downloaded single and also beating all his male counterparts nominated.
A surprise for many, Timmy T Dat won in the Hip Hop category. Social media was buzzing with a different opinion that he is ‘Not Hip-Hop’ enough, well you should have downloaded your favorite hip-hop act music because women lie, men lie, numbers don’t.
Hahaha ati Timmy tdat won a hip hop award?? so Dus Nyau is hip hop? then khaligraph is singing Ohangla #MdundoAwards #GainWithXtianDela
— Tribeless Youth™ (@Frank_Riziki) February 16, 2017
The conversation brewing on social media and what’s on the ground are like two disjointed factions. The acts are producing material that woos the audience to buy/consume/download. So when ‘Welewele’ gets more hits and downloads it means the artist has more appeal than your preferred artist.
It is such a tiring debate, just support your artist 100 all out but do not blame an award show for reflecting what they are known for.
Sauti Sol had this to say, because they have put in the work
Thank you @Mdundomusic for this amazing award. We won MOST DOWNLOADED AFRO POP ARTISTE in Kenya for the year 2016.🏆🙏🌍 #MdundoAwards
— Sauti Sol (@SautiSol) February 16, 2017
Here is the final list of winners from 2016 music year.
- Most Downloaded Single 2016 – WILLY PAUL
- Most Downloaded Female Single 2016 – MERCY MASIKA
- Most Downloaded Male Single 2016 – WILLY PAUL
- Most Downloaded Group Single 2016 – KYMO & STIGAH
- Most Downloaded Gospel Artist 2016 – MERCY MASIKA
- Most Downloaded Hip-Hop Artist 2016 – TIMMY TDAT
- Most Downloaded Afro-pop Artist 2016 – SAUTI SOL
