“It is music and dancing that makes me at peace with the world.” – Nelson Mandela

As Africans, we are proud of our African identity, proud to be part of this continent that embraces diversity. Music is part of celebrating and reclaiming our African identity. Our assorted musical tastes and influences are unique to our beautiful continent. Music brings us together and celebrates our diversity.

The opportunity for African song writers and composers to receive the accolades they deserve has finally arrived. The AfriMusic Song Contest will provide established and aspiring song writers the platform to showcase their best work. This song contest will be a wonderful integration of musical styles, cultures and ethnicities that reflect the diversity and varying styles within the African continent.

Similar in format to the Eurovision Song Contest, it is an opportunity to shine the spotlight on the best songwriters in Africa.

The AfriMusic Song Contest is going to make waves in the music industry, providing exposure and opportunity for talented African songwriters. The organizers of the competition have advised that the contest will roll out on digital platforms in its first and possibly second year; however, the aim is to create festival events in each participating country for the national selections and have the final show in the form of a concert hosted in the winning country from the previous year.

Ubunye ngengoma – Unity in Song (Zulu)

PRE-REGISTRATION:
The AfriMusic Song Contest will be launched with a pre-registration phase
Pre-registration will allow contestants to submit entries to register ahead of time
Pre-registration will also indicate the number of countries and artists participating in the contest

Pre-registration opened on the 3rd of August 2017 and will close on the 3rd of October 2017 with the competition entries opening on the 1st of November 2017 and closing on the 5th of January 2018

After the entries phase The AfriMusic Song Contest’s independent judges (for a list of judges will be made available soon) will review and assess all the entries to ensure they comply with the published rules. National Selections will take place in each participating country on AfriMusic’s digital platforms. During the entry phase entrants will be required to submit a video of their song performance. Their submitted video will be made available for a public to vote for the best song. The winning song from each country will then represent their country in the finals.

THE FINALS:
For the finals, The AfriMusic Song Contest will professionally produce a music video of each participating country’s winner. Those music videos will then be broadcast on AfriMusic’s digital platforms as well as on an African TV music channel (further details will be released shortly). Winners from each country will compete for the winning title of the BEST SONG IN AFRICA.

The National Selections voting in each country will take place from the 13th January 2018 to the 11th February 2018 with the Finals voting taking place from the 15th to the 29th March 2018.

THE PRIZE:
The winner of The AfriMusic Song Contest will receive show tickets, flights and accommodation to attend the Eurovision Song Contest taking place in Lisbon Portugal in Europe on the 12th May 2018.

For further information please email info@afrimusicsongcontest.com

The pre-registration form is available on www.afrimusicsongcontest.com

You can also find AfriMusic on:
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/afrimusicSC/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/afrimusicSC
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/afrimusicsc/
As well as on Snapchat

For any queries please contact:

Michelle Fernandes on +27 83 506 6698; info@afrimusicsongcontest.com
Samuel Moses Opoku-Agyemang on +233 50 448 0300; sam@afrimusicsongcontest.com
Roy van der Merwe – Head of South African Selection on roelofv0@absamail.co.za or telephone +27 11 673 5868

Roy van der Merwe,the head of the South African selection for the Afri music song contest spent most of yesterday writing individually to recording artists to tell them about the contest and ask them to enter. Several have responded with questions and here are the most common questions and we try to supply as detailed answers to them

Question – the three minute time rule – how strict will that be enforced?
Answer – the 3 minute rule applies for Eurovision for years and the idea is also to use it in Afri music but this is our first year and since it will not be a TV show but the contest (at least for the first year) will run on digital and mobile platforms, songs can be longer – so a song of 3.45 minutes will not be disqualified. We of course do not want a 9 minute long song. Use as guideline what radio stations require the ideal length of a song needs to be as obviously the idea of this song contest is to get the songs to be played on radio.

Question – in Eurovision there is a date like 1 September, and only songs available after that date is allowed. What is the date for Afri music
Answer – again the idea is that we want new recordings, but again as it is our first year, we have decided any song newer than 1 January 2017 will be used. yes you could have recorded the song 5 years ago, but if it only became commercially available after 1 January 2017, it is fine

Question – originally there were an entry fee – has that been scrapped?
Answer – yes, the original idea was to have an entry fee to make sure we get just serious artists entering, but since it is the first contest, we scrapped the fee and now an artist can enter up to three songs FREE. Even if we get 1000 entries, we will go through them all. So this is ideal for newcomers to see if they can impress the judges. Therefore take advantage of this and enter 3 songs as you got nothing to loose.

Question – Citizenship of the artists – what is the rule?
Answer – if it is a solo singer (male or female), he or she has to be a citizen of the country they are entering for. If it is a duo or group, just one member has to be a citizen of that country. This means in the case of a duo, if someone from Spain wants to team up with a singer from Ghana, he is free to enter for Ghana. This opens the door for European singers to team up with someone in an African country and help raise the profile of music in that country.

Question – Citizenship of the composers – what is the rule?
Answer – ideally again we would like the composers to be from the country they are writing for (in the case of original songs) but again for the first year, if just one of them is from that country, it is okay – so a good composer from SWEDEN can team up with a lyric writer in say Sudan.

Question – the language of the song – what is the rule?
Answer – we allow free language rule with English preferred as that is the most used language of music on the radio, but if someone in Kenya wants to sing in Russian, that is okay.

In general, the idea is that for the first year the rules are guidelines and as the contest grows and matures, more stricter rules will be in place.