Lilongwe urban artists dominate UMP awards

Artists from Malawi capital, Lilongwe based artists took away majority of the awards at the Urban Music Party (UMP) festival that was held at BAT grounds in Blantyre on Sunday.

The event, organized by Nde’feyo entertainment was aimed at celebrating local urban music.

Among other activities, awards were presented to deserving artists whose music has been warmly embraced by Malawians.

Some of the country’s Urban music heavyweights shared the stage much to the delight of a lively audience.

Out of five awards that were dished out, Lilongwe artists grabbed three leaving other two for Blantyre artists.

Lilongwe based hip hop artist Gwamba won the award for artists of the year while the award for song of the year went to Martse for his track titled “Mwano” which features the golden voices of Kell Kay.

The award for video of the year went to Janta, another Lilongwe based artist for his “Divorce” video while Blantyre based reggae artist Sangie won an award for best newcomer.

Tricky Beats from Blantyre went ahead of Lilongwe’s DJ Sley and Blantyre based Stitch Fray to grab the producer of the year award.

In reaction to the awards, fans for artists that failed to win questioned the awards arguing some artists emerged victorious due to fame and not that they had anything appetizing to offer to Malawi this year.

Another bone of contention has been the failure of Sonye to take home the ‘song of the year award’ after his “Tsika” hit dominated airplay as compared to Martse’s “Mwano” which sank into oblivion months ago.

Fans argued that Sonye’s track is loved by both the elderly and the youths, in drinking joints and in wedding ceremonies, in women’s events and in households.

Fans have also expressed dissatisfaction over Nepman’s failure to win the artist of the year award. Nepman has done well since late last year after releasing his “Nalero” hit.

He has also released a number of beautiful hits which made him the deserving artist to win, according to his fans.