Botswana Music and Entertainment Week to precede this year’s awards
Botswana Musicians Union (BOMU) and Total Music Group recently launched the 11th BOMU Awards at Zambezi Towers at the Gaborone CBD in what was in itself foretaste of a coveted awards show.
BOMU engaged Total Music Group to organise, market, coordinate and manage the music awards last year for a period of five years.
Build-up to the awards
The launch was attended by local creatives from artists to influencers and served as an opportunity for the organisers to reveal to the media what Botswana’s greatest music night has in store for this year’s participants.
Build-up to the awards
With the build-up to the awards already at fever pitch after the announcement that the show
will be preceded by the Botswana Music and Entertainment Week, the organiser of the event, Seabelo Modibe, who is the founder of Total Music Group, told the audience that it will be a busy week leading up to the awards night on December 3.
Woman of Song
“We have coined Botswana Music and Entertainment Week that will encompass a lot of activities like local content, a film festival, a native and folk music festival and a Woman of Song talent show and festival,” Modibe said.
“We did that to make sure that the awards don’t become a single day event. We are also bringing big artists to the music week so artists who don’t enter the awards won’t get a chance to meet them.”
“We have more than 20 international delegates from Craig Bright of Vic Falls Carnival, Walter Wanyanya of Jacaranda Festival, Stan Khoza of Moshito Music Conference and Sphe Mbhele of Imbizo Music Conference.”
Awards elevated to international level
Modibe added that the intention is to attract people from other countries and take the BOMU Awards to an international level. He emphasised that the BOMUs are recording industry awards and that everything will therefore be based on recorded works.
“These awards are not based on popularity,” Modibe noted. “Here you have to record a good album. People are going to be shocked to hear many names they have never heard of in various categories.”
He said the judges will be made of diverse people, including critics and people who know and have studied music.
BOMU aligns with BIMC
For his part, BOMU president Phemelo ‘Fresh’ Lesokwane iterated that this year’s BOMU Awards have aligned themselves with the Botswana International Music Conference (BIMC) and created the Botswana Music and Entertainment Week.
However, Lesokwane added, the prize money hasn’t changed but they hope to increase it in the coming years. Nominees will get P2500 each while winners will become P5000 richer.
Lesokwane took the opportunity to appeal for more financial support towards increasing prize money, saying the creative industry has a lot to contribute to the economy.
“I also encourage the public at large to support locals because we have a lot of talent that needs to be exposed,” he said. “I also urge companies to come on board, even specific categories.”
The BOMU Awards will be held at Boipuso Hall in Gaborone on 3 December 2022.