African music star, previous winners of All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), have urged their colleagues in the African music industry to enter for the ongoing 2017 AFRIMA for the opportunity to own one of the coveted 23.9karat gold-plated AFRIMA trophy.

The AFRIMA 2017 call for entries which opened on the AFRIMA website www.afrima.org on May 8 and ends on July 17 is for Artistes, Songwriters, Music/Entertainment Journalists, Video Directors, Music Producers, and DJs from across the African continent and Diaspora in the 33 categories across the five regions of Africa and various African music genres from contemporary to traditional forms.

Ghana’s breakout star, Wiyaala; Cameroon’s RnB crooner, WaxDey; Angola’s Rock band, M’Vula; 2015 AFRIMA Best Female Artiste in Southern Africa, Busiswa; Betty Akna from Equatorial Guinea and winner AFRIMA 2015 Best Female Artiste in Inspirational Music; Morocco’s super Disc Jockey and AFRIMA 2016 Best Male Artiste in Northern Africa, DJ Van; Gospel artiste Naomi Achu and Cameroon’s Hip Hop star, Stanley Enow, each affirmed that significant rise in their music career profile came after winning the AFRIMA in their various categories as contained in their recent individual statements made available to the International Committee of AFRIMA and on AFRIMA social media platforms.

In her statement, Wiyaala, winner of the AFRIMA 2014 award for Most Promising Artiste in Africa and Revelation of the African Continent applauded AFRIMA for changing her life. “If you are an ambitious African artiste of any genre, I strongly advise you to enter your work for AFRIMA 2017. It can change your life, it changed mine”.

AFRIMA 2016 Best Male Artiste in Central Africa, Wax Dey, while describing his participation in AFRIMA 2016 as ‘the most enriching musical experience I have had’, testified to AFRIMA’s objective of positively adding to the global image of African music.

“AFRIMA is a rich and inclusive platform… I was able to meet hundreds of artistes, in one place, sharing a stage and exploring music cultures from Northern, Western, Central, Eastern and Southern Africa – legends, traditional artistes, and urban artistes all together”, he said.

M’vula, AFRIMA 2015 winner for Best African Rock, revealed winning the awards, ‘has changed M’vula’s destiny’. “We are honoured and proud to be a part of the AFRIMA winners family.

Naomi Achu, aka Queen of Bamenda in her statement said, “As a winner of this prestigious award, AFRIMA has exposed my craft and extended my fan base to many other countries outside of mine such as Kenya, South Africa and beyond”.

As submissions for the 2017 All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, continue to pour in from across the continent and from the Diaspora, the biggest awards event in Africa is rolling out its build up activities leading to the AFRIMA main awards ceremony.

One of the build up events is the “Turn up Africa Concert” a series of concerts and music development conferences slated for seven African cities between August and October 2017.