All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, in partnership with the Africa Union Commission, AUC, will open submission of entries for this year’s edition of the continental awards on Monday, May 18, 2015.

Music professionals of African origin including artistes, songwriters, video directors, music/entertainment journalists and music producers resident on the continent or abroad are eligible to enter in any of the 33 award categories and entry submission closes on Monday, July 20, 2015. Works to be submitted must be produced in the year under review –May 31, 2014 to July 20, 2015.

The dates for entry submission and closing were recently announced by the AFRIMA President/Executive Producer, Mr. Mike Dada during the AUC-AFRIMA Joint Conference held on April 29, 2015 at the African Union Headquarters, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The conference witnessed by international media, select African music super stars, members of the international committee of AFRIMA and senior AUC officials, also served as a forum for unveiling the AFRIMA 2015 event calendar by the AUC Commissioner of Social Affairs, His Excellency, Dr. Mustapha S. Kaloko who formally declared the 2015 activities of AFRIMA open.

While explaining the series of activities and programmes lined up on the AFRIMA 2015 calendar for African music followers and lovers, Mr. Dada urged talented and eligible music professionals to optimise their chances of earning a nomination for AFRIMA in 2015.

“Last year, many artistes contacted AFRIMA Regional Directors and Country Directors complaining that they were not nominated. The reality is if an artiste does not submit his or her work during the entry submission window, then he or she misses the opportunity to have the music work considered or even nominated for its merit by the AFRIMA jury”, Dada said.

Earlier during his address at the cultural conference, Dr. Mustapha Kaloko who represented the AUC Chairperson, Her Excellency, Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, reiterated the pivotal role of people in the African music industry in moving forward the Africa Union’s social development agenda.

“The AUC has an agenda, not for the governments of Africa alone but also for the young people. Our agenda is to move the continent forward in any way we can and people from the music industry are one of the best vehicles to move agendas forward. So, we are proud of you and your achievements in bringing the music of Africa to greater repute around the world”.

Dr. Kaloko added that: “The AU calendar for Social Affairs wants to use every opportunity available to us for social development and we have particular emphasis on youth because we believe they are the ones who will continue to push the agenda for Africa’s development in the future”.

It will be recalled that the 2014 AFRIMA held in Lagos, Nigeria on December 27 in partnership with the Africa Union Commission. The star-studded event was televised live and produced along cultural themes. Hosted by multi award winning Nigerian music star, Innocent ‘2Face’ Idibia and bilingual Togolese radio personality, Maryse Acotie, some of the winners of the night included Ahmed Soultan (Morocco), Angelique Kidjo (Benin), Cindy Munyavi (Zimbabwe), Radio & Weasel (Uganda), Vanessa Mdee (Tanzania), Davido (Nigeria), Fally Ipupa (DRC) 2face Idibia (Nigeria) and Laurette Le Perle (DRC) among others. It was sponsored and partnered by Diamond Bank, Peugeot, Procter and Gamble, MNet, ONE.Org, Beat FM, City FM and Metro FM among others.