All About The Recently Launched Uganda Music Awards.

Press Release at 27th March.

THE UGANDA MUSIC AWARDS 2017, premiers today the 27 March 2017 intended not only to recognize and celebrate outstanding artistic achievement, technical proficiency, performance excellence and positive contribution to the music industry in Uganda but also reward quality musicians that are musically sound and are able to translate their musicality into the Ugandan context. Our goal is to be part of the process of bringing back credibility and respect to the profession of being a musician.

The flagship of this process will be an awards ceremony; TUMA, celebrating individuals that have had a positive impact on this industry in the past year; Following the launch today, the nominations process will officially open via our Mobile App, Partner media houses and social media and will close at midnight on 21 April 2017.

The nominations will then be screened by the Academy to ensure that nominees are in the right categories and the independent audit firm will ensure that all the nominees in the preliminary shortlist achieve the set standards to continue with the nomination process. The official nominees will then be announced to the public on 12 May 2017 and a nominee party held in their honor on the same day.

The voting process will officially be opened at midnight on 12 May 2017 after the nominee party and will close at midnight on 21 July 2017; the public vote constitutes 40% of the entire vote. The Academy will sit to adjudicate artistic and technical quality of the entries and will vote under the auditors supervision to come up with ONE unanimous academy vote which will constitute 60% of the entire vote. The public and academy votes will then be tabulated by the independent audit firm who will re-count, verify and tally the final vote and will hand over the results at the Award gala night that will be held on 4 August at Kampala Serena Hotel at 6pm.

The categories for nominations include;

Artist of the year, Best Male Artist, Best Female Artist,  Song of the Year,  Best Instrumentalist,  Best Urban Artiste,  Best Reggae/Ragga/Dancehall Artist,  Best Afro Pop Artist,  Best Traditional Artiste/Group,  Best New Artiste,   Best Regionals (North, East, West and Central),  Best Dance Crew,  Best Music Video, Best Producer, Fans Choice Award  Gospel Artiste of the year,  Best Artist in the diaspora  Best Afro-fusion.

The Academy will independently vet, select and vote to award two Special categories; The Lifetime Achievement Award and The Humanitarian Award.

To increase engagement between fans and musicians, The Uganda Music Awards in conjunction with the nominees will hold music concerts, activations, workshops and media tours in the 4 main regions of Uganda in the towns of Mbale, Gulu, Mbarara, and Masaka from 26 May 2017 to 14 July 2017.

As a socially responsible entity, The Uganda Music Awards, in partnership with the musicians and stakeholders of this industry will hold a CSR event to honor less privileged musicians and will hold music related workshops in high schools and colleges to talk about the business and the art of music with attendees through the year.

We have set up two controls for the awards process including; An academy which consists of music industry professionals who represent a diverse cross sectional set of backgrounds including vocalists, songwriters, sound engineers, producers, deejays, journalists, label executives and music professors. Appointment into the academy is based on wealth of experience in the required field, technical and professional expertise in the music industry and independent standing in the industry. However, in keeping with global industry practice, the specific identities of the individuals in the Academy will be kept confidential to ensure that it is not compromised.

The second control is an independent audit firm whose purpose is to vet the voting structures and platforms to guarantee transparency, accuracy and fairness, verify artist criteria, compile and tally all votes and supervise academy meetings. This is a time consuming, arduous, complicated and intense job that requires, accuracy, professionalism, confidentiality and mathematical expertise to tabulate the nominees and the final winners at the gala night.

We welcome you to walk this journey with us, transforming the face of Ugandan music, encouraging the public to support our musicians. To the public and artistes; nominations are now open. Nominate your favorite song and artist by downloading our mobile app from google play store or via social media channels (Face book, Twitter, and instagram) by posting the image/name of the artist, name of category and the official TUMA‘s hash tag (#TUMA2017).