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English: About

East Africa’s gospel music awards originating from Uganda

General information The VIGA Music Awards 3rd Season is on, Nominations open! The VIGA are an East Africaan gospel music awards that annually recognize and reward Christian/gospel music peers for their outstanding accomplishments. The VIGA season runs from January to December in a particular year.

Nomination guidelines:

• Specialized panels propose and forward the entries for nomination. For other cases, intending participants or their representative pick a form of registration from our centers, fill and return it with a copy of their works that most represents them for a particular category, in video and/or audio. (This is especially for artists who may have not got deserved media presence yet feel their works are worthwhile. The process begins six months in advance to give room for the nominating panels have a full and adequate review of the artistes works, as some are not listened to or watched on the media channels).

• After the registration, a team of respected professionals in the music and media industries, and members of the VIGA Community, each working independently and supervised by two respected auditing firms will do the nomination. Each category will have four nominees.

• The nominees are then published in the Viga’s souvenir magazine, newspapers, social media, and announced over radio and TV, then subjected to public voting through SMS and a voting form in the Viga magazine.

• The SMS and voting forms go direct to the auditing firms, who do the tallying and present their results at the awards event

• The nominees’ profiles and achievements during the year are enumerated and there after the winners unveiled and announced on the day of the event. This moment is tense and exciting!

The following categories will be considered;

Genre/style awards nominees should be proposed and submitted by the music industry stakeholders especially producers, should have had strong presence on the media and public performances, and released in the considered period) • Acapella song/artist • Choral song/artist • Traditional song/artist • Reggae song/artist • Hip hop • Dance hall/Ragga • RnB/Jazz/Soul • Kadongo kamu • Afrobeat-Zouk/Soukos/Kwaito

Production and support awards (Nominees are proposed and submitted by artists, media personnel and a specially selected panel from industry stakeholders. They are based on the quality and quantity of the works of the contestant, delivered in the considered period) • Song writer • Video producer • Audio producer • Promoting icon (outstanding personalities or institutions that contributed to, supported, sponsored or promoted successful artists in the considered period) • Album of the year (Should have 6 or more tracks with at least three (3) new songs or original renditions released in the considered period)

Exceptional and technical musical awards (Nominees should be proposed and submitted by specialized panels from the music industry stakeholders especially the media personnel, music dealers, promoters, must have had big media presence, downloads, sales, performed intensively, and topped charts (Internet/Print/electronic). Others are based on their contribution to the industry, and/or quality of their works in the period of consideration) • Worship song/Artist • Inspirational song • Junior song/artist (for young artists below 15 years) • Video of the year (for works that acclaim immense popularity) • Best performer (for artists who exhibit great proficiency at performances) • Musician/instrumentalists (for artists who exhibit great proficiency with musical gadgets) • Exemplary artist (for artists who produce commendable non-gospel positive message songs) • Long service award (for artists with over 15 years active contribution to the industry) • VIGA merit award (Special recognition by the VIGA executive to a deserving party) • Live band song/artist (for artists who do their music on live musical accompaniment) • Special entity song/artist (for ‘secular’ artists who have done a successful gospel song) • Upcoming/new talent (for new artists having their initial breakthrough to the mass audience, not more than one album (6 songs) by nomination period, and previous winners or nominees don’t qualify) • Collaboration song (for two or more artists from different groups who come together for a project) • Best male artist (Must have produced at least 3 songs and a video, featured prominently in the media and performances, with excellent vocal capabilities and good character) • Best Female artist (Must have produced at least 3 songs and a video, featured prominently in the media and performances, with excellent vocal capabilities and good character) • Song/artist of the year (For works that have registered massive sustained dominance in charts and public)

Regional awards (Nominees are proposed and submitted by media personnel in the region and/or a specially selected panel from the industry stakeholders representing the region/country. At least 70% of the songs should be in one of the local languages of the eligible region/country, produced and released in period of consideration) • Elgon song/artist (for artists based in Eastern Uganda) • Rwenzori song/artist (for artists based in Western Uganda) • Upper Nile song/artist (for artists based in Northern Uganda) • Diaspora song/artist (for Ugandan artists based outside Uganda) • Kenyan song/artist (for Kenyan artists whose songs have been successful in Uganda) • Tanzania song/artist (for Tanzanian artists whose songs have been successful in Uganda) • Rwandese song/artist (for Rwandese artists whose songs have been successful in Uganda) • Burundi song/artist (for Burundian artists whose songs have been successful in Uganda)

• Continental/International song (for African & International artists whose songs have been successful in Uganda)