The 2016 edition of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), which held on Sunday at the Convention Center Eko Hotels and Suites in Lagos, Nigeria, celebrated Africa’s contemporary and traditional music while showcasing the continent’s rich musical heritage to the rest of the world.
The awards ceremony featured breathtaking performances from Nigerian pop duo P-square, Tanzania’s Diamond Platnumz, and Uganda’s Navio.
Watch Diamond Platnumz’ performance here:
Other performances included Dare Art Alade, Brymo, Aramide, Seyi Shay, YCee, VVIP, Navio, Stanley Enow, Patoranking, and Falz.
Watch Brymo perform with Aramide here:
The ceremony honored three of Africa’s music legends: Nigeria’s Sunny Ade, Cameroun’s Manu Dibango, and DR Congo’s Rumba icon the late-Papa Wemba.
The AFRIMA awards, which is organised in partnership with the African Union Commission (AUC), is often described as the biggest music awards on the continent and Sunday’s impressive award ceremony more than matched all expectations.
Since the inception of the award in 2014, this is the third year of the event. In attendance was the governor of Lagos State Akinwunmi Ambode and the Nigerian Information Minster Lai Mohammed alongside a long roll call of dignitaries and celebrities.
Big winners of the night included Diamond Platnumz, who went home with the Song of the Year Award for his hit “Utanipenda,” Ahmed Soultan of Morocco who scooped up Album of the Year, and Nigeria’s Wizkid who went home with the Artist of the Year Award.
All winners of the 2016 AFRIMA awards went home with a 23.9 carat gold-plated trophy shaped in the form of a djembe drum and a microphone. Each trophy had the recipient’s name engraved on it.
See the full list of winners below:
- Best Male East Africa – Diamond Platnumz (Tanzania)
- Best Female East Africa – Cindy Sanyu (Uganda)
- Best Male South Africa – Black Coffee (South Africa)
- Best Female South Africa – Sally Boss Madam (Namibia)
- Best Male Central Africa- Wax Dey (Cameroon)
- Best Female Central Africa- Bruna Tatiana (Angola)
- Best Male North Africa – DJ Van (Morocco)
- Best Female North Africa- Zina Daoudia (Morocco)
- Best Male West Africa – Flavour (Nigeria)
- Best Female West Africa – Aramide (Nigeria)
- Best Inspirational Female – Naomi Achu (Cameroon)
- Best Artiste/Du0/Group Band in African Contemporary- Flavour (Nigeria)
- Most Promising Artiste – Amine Aub (Morocco)
- African Fans Favorite – Phyno (Nigeria)
- Song Writer of the Year – Unique (Uganda)
- Special Recognition Award – King Sunny Ade (Nigeria)
- Best Artist/Duo/Group African Hiphop – Stanley Enow (Cameroon)
- Best Artist/Duo/Group African Ragga & Dancehall –Patoranking (Nigeria)
- Best Artist/Duo/Group African Traditional Music – Zeynab (Benin)
- Best Artist/Duo/Group African Electro – Such (Zimbabwe)
- Best Artist/Duo/Group African RnB – Henok & Mehari Brothers (Ethiopia)
- Best Artist/Duo/Group in African Rock – M’vula (Angola)
- Best African Jazz – Jimmy Dludlu (South Africa)
- Best African Group – VVIP (Ghana)
- Best African Collaboration – Mbilo Mbilo by Eddy Kenzo (Uganda) ft. Niniola (Nigeria)
- Video of the Year – Dogo Yaro by VVIP (Ghana)
- Revelation of the Year – Falz (Nigeria)
- Album of the Year – Ahmed Soultan (Morocco)
- Song of the Year – Utanipenda Diamond Platnumz (Tanzania)
- Artist of the Year – Wizkid (Nigeria)
