K-fm’s Roja & Slick Stuart win Best DJ award. Photos by Abubaker Lubowa
According to the organisers of the HiPipo Music Awards, it’s the fans that decide which artiste wins by voting for them as many times as possible. At the end, the artistes with the most votes from the fans take the accolade home.
Some revellers refused to believe that is the way it works last Saturday during the 5th edition of Awards at Serena Hotel. The first category to shock the revellers was the Award for Must Watch talent; it was given to an artiste called KizAza, a Congolese refugee who settled in Uganda to do music. He wasn’t known by anyone in the crowd apart from those he was sharing a table with. This same category had artistes like Da Agent, Ceasorous and Feffe Busi among others.
Pine Avenue5 is a music group that hardly anyone knew. They took home the award for Best Music Group beating Radio and Weasel, and Kent and Flosso.
There were many other categories that left revellers booing because they thought their favourite artistes were cheated. However, categories like Male Artiste, Video of the Year, Female and Artiste of the year seemed to have made the audiences happy – there was no disagreement on those.
Gospel artist Levixone teases Bebe Cool
At the event, the hosts who were TV personality Douglas Lwanga and radio presenter, King Wesley didn’t coordinate well. One didn’t let the other talk as they all wanted to talk at the same time and this made the event lack hype.
As the awards were being given out, artistes came onto the stage one by one and performed just one song to save time. Those who performed included Sheebah, Navio, Geosteady and Okeng Bon Town from northern Uganda. Unlike last year, this year had a few international acts. These included Navy Kenzo, a duo from Tanzania and DJ Pius, Charly and Nina from Rwanda.
Charly and Nina from Rwanda are new comers on the music scene but were awarded for song of the year – Rwanda as Navy Kenzo took East Africa Best New Act. Were they awarded because they were around or they deserved it? It was a question that remained unanswered.
Entertainment Showbiz Act – Madina Nalwanga, Queen of Katwe
The awards which have many categories ended at around 2am when Sheebah was called to receive her Artiste of the year Award. Something strange happened though; when the time came to award the Artiste of the Year, Bebe Cool’s team that were representing him left the venue before the winner was announced, even when they knew he had been nominated.
This forced some people to think that the awards are not transparent and artistes came knowing very well which awards they had won and hadn’t won. The same happened with Navio who was at the event until he received his Album of the Year award and after, left, yet he was nominated in two other categories that were yet to be announced.
List of HiPipo Music Awards winners for 2017*
1 Best Hip Hop Song – Sala Puleesa, Mun G
2 Global Act Recognition Award – Michael Kiwanuka
3 Song of The Year: South Sudan – Sambala, MB Law & Rhapsody ft Radio & Weasel
4 Must Watch Talent (Commendation Certificate) – KizAza
5 Best Regional Song – Ninkwesiga, Ray G Rhiganz
6 Commended Acapella Group (Commendation Certificate) – Canaan Gents
7 Best Audio Producer – Nessim
8 Best Video Producer – NG Films UG (Dr. Nolton)
9 Best DJ – Roja & Slick Stuart
10 Best Song Writer – John Kay
11 Best Zouk Song – Same Way, Geosteady ft Lydia Jazmine
12 Song of The Year: Rwanda – Indoro, Charly & Nina ft Big Fizzo
13 Entertainment Showbiz Act – Madina Nalwanga, Queen of Katwe
14 Quinquennial Africa Music Vanguard Award 2012-2016 – Diamond Platinumz
15 Best RnB Song – Adddicted, Maro & Irene Namubiru
16 Best Religious Song – Omusiibi, Swahaba Kasumba
17 Song of The Year: Tanzania – Aje, Ali Kiba
18 Best Music Group – Pine Avenue5
Sheebah Karungi won two awards,Video of The Year and – Kisasi Kimu, and best female artist.
19 Lifetime Achievement Award – Sammy Kasule
20 Best Ragga Dancehall Song – Tuli Majje, Ziza Bafana
21 Best AfroBeat Song – Nkwatako, Sheebah Karungi
22 Best Reggae Song – African Girl, Bebe Cool
23 Song of The Year: Kenya – Unconditional Bae, Sauti Sol ft Ali Kiba
24 East Africa Super Hit – Unconditional Bae, Sauti Sol ft Ali Kiba
25 East Africa New Act – Navy Kenzo
26 Best Band Song – Sembera, Mary Bata
27 Best Folk Song – Mayumba Kumi, Jackie Kizito
28 East Africa best Video – Salome, Diamond Platnumz
29 Best AfroPop Song – Dangerous, Ceasarous
30 Best Breakthrough Artist – Roden Y
31 Video of The Year – Kisasi Kimu, Sheebah Karungi
32 Song of The Year: Uganda – Kabulengane, Bebe Cool
33 Album of The Year – The Chosen, Navio
34 Best Male Artist – Bebe Cool
35 Best Female Artist – Sheebah Karungi
36 Music Icon of The Decade – Bebe Cool
37 Artist of The Year – Sheebah Karungi