MAMAs 2016, The night that was!!!
From the eyes from someone who has only seen the MAMAs on TV, this was an experience worth looking forward to, and it lived up to my expectations for a very large part of the show; I am Ntsikelelo Miya, and this is my recap of the MTV Base Africa Music Awards 2016.11.06
With excitement starting early on the day before the day of the awards when it was announced that Trevor Noah would not be able to able to make it to the awards, and is being replaced by the Queen herself, Bonang Matheba, which was an announcement that sparked the controversial twitter hashtag #OpenUpTheIndustry which for a large part I have to say had no substance this time around, as no new person in the industry was going to be able to pull it off in just 24 hours, I wish there was, but truth is, the awards would have been a disaster of a joke.
The press conference was interesting, for the simple fact that the media seemed afraid to ask questions, but once they started asking, things got interesting to the point where Wizkid didn’t have any defence but to say “I have many friends” to a certain question about his love life; and the day was made more fun by the awesome partners of the awards, Absolut Vodka.
When the day of the awards came, I was a bit nervous like I was one of the nominees, but I calmed myself down and went off to enjoy the show, and the funny part is that I live in the north of Johannesburg, just minutes away from the Ticketpro Dome, but somehow that day I got lost on my way there. The hospitality lounge was great, and we had to start the show, now this was the moment I was waiting for.
Overall it was a great show, production was on point, as I had a chance to talk some of the guys who were involved in the stage work, and they were relieved that the show was finally happening as it was a very long and tiring process to make sure it goes without glitches. I loved the energy of the audience and how responsive they were to everything, but with just a small concern. This was an African show, but most of the audience members didn’t seem to be responsive when it came to other African artists, but I guess its something we will have to fix with time and a whole lot knowledge about our own continent and its artists.