In an effort to take contemporary African music to a new and exciting dimension, Zain is partnering with MTV Africa to bring the maiden edition of The MTV Africa Music Awards with Zain (MAMA). MAMA is MTV’s newest music award show, created specifically for the African continent to celebrate and uplift the region’s contemporary music and youth culture.

The MAMAs reflect the tastes of Africa’s youth and offers an unprecedented global platform for African musicians to shine, and to spread the word about Africa’s extraordinary music talent. It will also offer an unprecedented global platform for African musicians to shine, and to spread the word about Africa’s extraordinary music talent.

The Music Awards celebrates contemporary African music genres and international music genres young Africans love, from R&B to Pop, Rock, Alternative, Gospel, Hip-hop, Rumba, Soul, Electro, Funk, Afro Dance, Dance, Dancehall, Kwaito, Kuduru, Reggae, Afro Pop, Afro Beat, Ndombolo and Zouk.

The TV show of the Awards will air across sub-Saharan Africa on DStv, on MTV terrestrial TV platforms in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania and on multiple MTV networks around the world including the USA.

The creation of a dedicated MTV Africa awards ceremony has been an ambition of MTV’s since the launch of its African music TV channel, MTV base, on 22 February 2005. Despite the existence of other music awards ceremonies on the Continent the brand felt there was a place in which to celebrate the African contemporary music scene from a consumer’s point of view, in the same way as other sister channels around the world celebrate their artists, in Europe, China, USA, Australia or elsewhere.

The Awards event will take place on 22 November 2008. Build up programming on-air on MTV base will begin in October after the nominations are revealed. The show will premiere on MTV and partner stations around the world from 29 November 2008.

The sizzling, star-studded music and entertainment extravaganza will take place at the Velodrome, Abuja, Nigeria on Saturday 22 November 2008 in front of an audience of celebrities, media and music fans. The Awards will take the form of 2-hour TV spectacular, combining performances from top African and international stars with award presentations and a celebrity host.

The MTV Africa Music Awards with Zain is designed to celebrate the passion, creativity and artistry of the African music industry, as viewed through the eyes of MTV viewers and music fans. This is the definitive poll of MTV viewer’s tastes in the continent, as the widest distributed music channel in the region.

Conceived as the ultimate celebration of African contemporary music talent, the MTV Africa Music Awards with Zain will provide a major promotional platform for the burgeoning African music industry, championing, supporting and empowering African talent to millions of music fans around the world via MTV’s global multimedia network. The awards will focus on contemporary African and international genres loved by the MTV audience in sub-Saharan Africa including R&B, Pop, Rock, Alternative, Gospel, Hip-hop, Rumba, Soul, Electro, Funk, Afro Dance, Dance, Dancehall, Kwaito, Kuduru, Reggae, Afro Pop, Afro Beat, Ndombolo and Zouk.

MAMAS are open to all African artists in Africa or the Diaspora who have received airplay on MTV base in the qualifying period. In addition, four categories are open to international artists – Best Hip Hop, Best R&B, Best Alternative, MAMAs Legend. One category – My Video – which involves the creation of a music video – is open to everyone, including MTV base viewers.

There will be 13 separate music award categories including, Artiste of the year, Best Male, Best Female, Best Group, Best New Act, Best Alternate (both local and international act), Best Hip Hop,(local and international act) Best R&B (local and international act), Video of the Year, Best live performance, Mama legend Award, My video Award and Listeners choice Award.(To be decided by radio listeners across Africa).

There will be five nominations in each category. The nominees for the MTV Africa Music Awards will be announced on 7 October 2008. No nominees will be announced for the Legend award category or the MY Video category. Listener’s Choice nominees will be announced on 27 October.

Artists are eligible for as nomination – as long as they have received airplay on MTV base in the qualifying period (16 August 2007 – 15 August 2008) then they will be considered. It is not permissible for artists to ‘submit’ themselves for consideration – the nominees are chosen by the Academy working from the list of artists who have been played on MTV base in the previous year.

The nominees will be chosen by an ‘academy’ of music experts from across Africa including music and video producers, artists, DJs, music programmers from radio and TV, and media. The academy current consists of 150 individuals from all over sub-Saharan Africa, with representation from all over sub-Saharan Africa including. They will select from a master list of all the eligible artists from the previous year. The academy narrows down the field to five nominees in each category and the winners in most categories will be decided by MTV viewers voting via SMS or online. One or two categories will be decided by MTV directly.