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 AS a follow-up to MTV base, its 100th channel, which is dedicated to Africa, global music and youth culture group, Music Television, is finalising plans to hold its first awards for African music next year.
A top-level source in the organisation told The Guardian that the ceremony would take the shape of existing ones such as the MTV Europe Awards and the Video Music Awards. Although the he did not reveal the venue of the event, the source said, "Everything has been finalised, we're just waiting to go," and adds that the company was convinced that the awards, which would be rivalling others such as the Channel O Video Music Awards and the Kora Awards, would "further promote African music."
Noting the possible difficulties in grouping the largely divergent genres of the continent's music, the source explained MTV had learnt to tag the music from its experiences with MTV base. "That channel is so challenging because Africa is so diverse. So we needed to programme it such that all Africans would want to watch it, no matter where they are from," he said.
In the meantime, however, the Events and Digital Media Manager of MTV Networks Africa, Jandre Louw, has said the company's agreement with mobile telephone service provider, MTN, would last for one year. "At the end of this year and this campaign we will look at where we intend to go next year and then we will take it from there," he said.
Currently, both companies are in a partnership to discover the first Nigerian video jockey on MTV base. The presenter, according to them, would anchor a music and youth culture programme to be called MTN/MTV Naija Hits. The MTN/MTV VJ search is the second VJ Search since Sizwe Dhlomo won the first edition in 2005; but this is the first time that MTN is involved in the programme.
Louw said MTN and MTV are inspired by the quality of talents, which turned out at Abuja and Jos and are hopeful that such would come out at other regional centres in Benin and Lagos.
Apart from the quality, he also observed that Nigeria would serve the expansion objectives of both companies. "Nigeria and South Africa being very key markets for us gives us reasons to come here for our music TV business. The relationship between MTN and MTV has been a long time in the making," Louw said, also mentioning that apart from being two Pan-African brands, the VJ project unites them as "trendy, good looking, and young-looking brands appealing to young adults. MTN is also doing something with music on its platform across the continent so it is a natural marriage."
The Youth Segment Manager at MTN, Ayokunle Adesina, also claimed that the Nigerian market remained critical to the company, although it had plans to launch operations beyond Africa and the Middle East. "Over the past years, we have been projecting the fact that we are very Nigerian and our affiliations is not about countries of origin but to deliver the best to Nigerians," he said, cancelling the notion that his organisation would have naturally stage such programmes with Channel O, another company of South African origins but for disagreements over terms.
Both Louw maintained that the eventual of the VJ Search would get as much opportunity at MTV as he can. "The VJ will get a one-year contract to present the show. We are going to be training and involving him or her and giving him or her all the opportunities we can give. It's really up to them. That is what Sizwe did. Apart from the show that he started with, he now has many others," Louw said. Source: http://www.africanentertainment.org
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