NAMA nominees to be announced soon

MTC’s Chief Human Capital and Corporate Affairs Officer and Chairperson of the Namibia Annual Music Award (NAMA) Executive Committee, Tim Ekandjo has announced that the 2013 NAMA nominees will be announced on 23 March, following a successful vetting process.“The vetting process has been completed, results have successfully been audited and the Judges are hard at work making sure only the best entries qualify as Nominees”, said Ekandjo.
The 2013 NAMA’s received a total of 857 entries.Out of the total,  only 612 entries qualified  while the remaining 245 entries were disqualified by the Steering Committee. “We have   been able to reduce the number of disqualified entries by accepting only manual entries. This  however meant more administration work having to upload them onto the system ourselves,” Ekandjo added.
According to the committee, the most common reasons for disqualifications were either, artists submitted albums that were not valid or released on time, albums that were not commercially released, albums that do not conform to the NAMA release dates or albums or entries that were already entered in the NAMA’s last year.
“The steering committee was very thorough with applying the rules and regulations and we wish to commend them for a job well done. We also want to thank them for their maturity for working together as different music labels in the common good of the music industry”.
According to Ekandjo, the venue for the Nomination Launch is yet to be confirmed but will be announced once the nominees are proclaimed. “The competition will be tough, the quality of entries has been good and only a maximum of 6 nominees will be allowed for each category. As usual we will have happy and unhappy artists but that is totally normal, and we will certainly understand that,” Ekandjo stated.