Botswana based gospel artists have been urged by the SABC Crown Gospel Music (CGM) awards organizer, The World Gospel Powerhouse to sign up to be nominated in the upcoming 6th edition of the crowns to be held on the 17th of November in Durban.
“Our mission this year is to grow beyond South African borders and we are calling Botswana based artists to enter in their numbers. We have 33 categories and the ‘Best of Africa’ is specific to our brothers and sisters outside RSA. Categories will be judged and voted for and, nominations are now open until 30th September,” said the media publicist of Mirror PR and Events, Wendy Sithole.
When asked about the qualities that the artists have to possess in order to qualify Sithole said, “one has to be a recording gospel artist, have good sound and not necessarily a best seller but have quality material.”
The 6th SABC CGM Awards promise to get everyone talking as there is always a new facet to the prestigious awards. Renowned world-class gospel artist Kirk Frankling who is famed for being the co-executive producer and host of the BET original series Sunday Best, will grace the event.
The spokesperson of The World Gospel Powerhouse, Sipho Kaleni said; “We are excited to see the growing trend of excellence within the gospel music industry which has been influenced by our national workshop programme, the Iziko Gospel Music Convention as well as the previous SABC CGM Awards celebrations. We are looking forward to receiving nominations from the entire talented African continent and celebrating the continuous godly excellence at this year’s awards.”
The CGM Awards is an annual South African awards ceremony which is a platform to salute, promote and award excellence in the gospel music industry. Winners are given a symbolic crown used as a metaphor for the real crown that gospel musicians hope to get at the end of their journey.
The CGM Awards concept is a brainchild of Zanele Mbokazi, founder and President of the World Gospel Powerhouse. The first CGM Awards were held in 2008, in the presence of thousands of gospel music enthusiasts and a number of remarkable gospel musicians from across Africa have been honoured in the past four years.