Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Expresso das Ilhas
Published on 2024-03-17 10:31:05
The organization of the Cabo Verde Music Awards considers that musical production in the country increased significantly in 2023, after the instability caused by the covid-19 pandemic, deciding that there will be eight more nominees at this year’s gala.
“I believe that this increase in musical production is also a reflection of stability in the cultural sector. We have already gone through all those more unstable moments, motivated by the pandemic, and now production is beginning to follow its natural course,” said Soraia de Deus, from the Cabo Verde Music Awards (CVMA) organization.
The 13th gala of the official music awards of Cabo Verde will take place on June 1, returning to the city of Praia after being held for the first time on the island of Sal last year.
The director of communication for CVMA stated that the “significant increase” in production happened in categories related to modern music, such as pop, kizomba, hip-hop, or afrobeat, which led the organization to expand the number of nominees from three to four in eight categories.
The same 17 categories will be in competition, but increasing from 51 to 59 nominees, with digital or physical works released between January 1 and December 31, 2023.
“We also noticed that there are increasingly more ways to record, and to record with quality, more studios, more platforms for artists to showcase their work,” emphasized Soraia de Deus, believing that the increase will continue in the coming years.
In addition to the increase in production, the responsible person noted more quality in Cape Verdean music, since the music awards were created in 2011, one of the events that mark the cultural agenda in the country and throughout the Lusophone Africa.
“Today, I feel that all artists want to be at the CVMA, they like to receive a CVMA trophy and they know that in order to get there, they have to make music of quality, accepted by the public, popular,” emphasized the spokesperson.
In this sense, she believes that the event has been a “great incentive, and very stable” for artists in Cabo Verde. “The CVMA are already a certainty in the life and career of an artist,” she added.
The gala returns “home” and will be held at the Port of Praia, in a location considered “unlikely,” a “challenge” made possible thanks to a partnership with Enapor, the company managing the country’s ports, said Soraia de Deus.
The CVMA Academy is already selecting the nominees, who will be announced on April 19 in Lisbon, after happening last year in the United States, where the strategy is to internationalize the award.
Another way to take the award and Cape Verdean music beyond borders is to have international guests and media, especially from Portuguese-speaking countries.
“We are fulfilling this role and helping artists to internationalize, to be better known, to partner with musicians from other latitudes, and this has been happening and has been reflected a lot,” she explained.
The Luso-Angolan Jimmy P and Neyma, winner of last year’s popular song of the year, are the two special guests of the gala.
The event’s budget is around 18 million escudos.
Read the original article(Portuguese) on Expresso das Ilhas
