IT’S that time once again when the public gets to put forward their gospel nominations for this year’s Crown Gospel Music Awards. The fourth annual awards’ voting process is open and draws to a close on September 1.
This year the categories have been bumped up to 30, with four new ones. These include Best Gospel TV Show, Best Gospel Radio Show, Best Gospel Community Radio Show and Best Outreach Programme.
To tell us more about what these categories entail is World Gospel Powerhouse manager Celimpilo Malinga.
“Gospel is showcased in various different platforms so our awards have to cater for that. These new categories will honour those people who go into communities spreading the gospel, supporting and reaching those in need. We are really excited about that,” explained Malinga.
The procedure is still the same with gospel artists, record companies and promoters encouraged to submit their nominations. Last year there was a public outcry over controversial rapper Jub Jub being nominated in the Best Video category after being involved in the Soweto drag racing debacle in December. Because of this Jub Jub’s name was removed from the nominations list.
Malinga reiterated that the nomination was based on the quality of the video, not on the rapper himself.
“The music video has nothing to do with the artist himself. We cannot stop people from entering the awards because of the things they have done, we will be looking at the music and their contribution to the gospel music industry. What happened in this case was just a glitch, we are not anticipating it happening again this year,” said Malinga.
Hype around the awards has been building and started with the auditions for singers and dancers to perform at the showcase. These were concluded in June and were followed with a call to all radio and TV stations to increase their airplay of gospel music.
lThe nominees for the Crown Gospel Awards will be announced on October 7. The awards will be held at Durban’s International Convention Centre on November 5. Nomination forms are available at www.cgma.co.za. For more information call 031 303 3520.