Dikakapa miss out on Kora Awards

| Wednesday April 7, 2010 00:00

 

The awards were held on April 4, and Nigerian R&B duo P-Square were crowned Africa's best and won themselves the US $1 million, but the Nigerian group might also rue the day they won the awards as they rebelled against a decision taken by the Nigerian music industry and recording companies urging all Nigerians to boycott the event.

In their statement, the Kora office in Nigeria, in association with relevant organisations like NARI, PMAN, AM.B-Pro, MORAN, etc (under the aegis of the Nigerian Music Industry Coalition), said they will ensure that any Nigerian artist who does not heed the call will be excluded from any project executed by these organisations and the governments of Lagos and Cross River states.

The hard hitting press release issued this week claims that the Kora Awards founder Ernest Adjovi signed two contracts with the Lagos and Cross River states to host the awards there, pocketing undisclosed sums of money from both states before eventually relocating the awards to Burkina Faso.

Meanwhile, the Botswana group will feel very disappointed after putting on a huge promotion urging their followers to vote for them via sms and the internet, a process which cost Duma fm alone, P100 000  worth of airtime, while RB1 and RB2, and Botswana television also contributed undisclosed significant airtime promoting  Dikakapa.

 The Botswana outfit were hoping to finish in the top four in the votes which would earned them one of  the US 1 million, US 50 000, US 25 000, or US 10 000 prizes.

Dikakapa's phones were still unreachable at the time of going to press yesterday as Showbiz sought their reaction.

Despite making it to the semi-finals, Dikakapa still paid the bills for flights, hotels and meals, with the organisers only sponsoring  three members of the group  for hotels, according to Dikakapa' spokesman  Jambo Lekone in a previous interview with Showbiz. The awards were first announced three years ago, but were postponed five times, and shifted from Nigeria, Benin, and finally Burkina Faso.

The eventual winners, P-Square, is made up of twins Paul and Peter who reportedly beat Senegalese group Black Diamond, Angola's Paul G and Burkina Faso's Amety Meria to scoop the top award on Sunday.

According to reports, the diva from Cape Verde Cesaria Evora and Gabon's Pierre Akendengue picked up lifetime achievement awards, while a tribute was also paid to the late Michael Jackson at the ceremony held in Ouagadougou's sports stadium.

However, it is reported that the event failed to attract US music super stars despite enticing Akon, a Senegalese born artist, with a private jet and some US 150 000. Alicia Keys, who was honoured on the night with best African in Diaspora, also snubbed the event said to have been attended by over 3,000 people and broadcast live in 22 countries.

Other successes on the night included Becca (Ghana) for best African prospect, Chronicle 2h (Senegal) for best reggae artist.Artists from 24 African countries took part in the competition, whose awards are decided through a share of public and jury votes.The Kora Awards were created in 1996 and for the first time the ceremony took place outside South Africa.