Vine Entertainment Awards launch at Spicy Oak, Seven Trees in Kololo, Kampala. L-R: Mr Nkore John, Ms Rebecca Namitala, aka Lady Bezo and Mr Ronnie Habasa.
Awards to recognize and reward Christians who have excelled not only in the gospel music industry but also other fields including sports, film, comedy, media and spoken word have been out-doored at a ceremony in Kampala.
Vine Media Group and Platinum Concepts launched The Vine Entertainment Awards at Spicy Oak, Seven Trees on 1st October, 2019, also announcing renown media personality, Ronnie Habasa as the CEO.
The awards are geared towards encouraging Christians to be key influencers in the Ugandan entertainment industry, according to the organizers.
“Art and media play a big role in influencing social and cultural behavior within society,” Mr Ronnie Habasa, who is also a former employee at Power 104.1 FM, said in his speech at the launch.
“Our objective is to recognise and reward Christian talent. We want to provide clean entertainment and promote the role of the arts in Kingdom building,” he said.
Musicians and other stakeholders who attended the launch expressed excitement for the scheme which they say is long overdue. These included Coopy Bly, Zabuli, D.Reign, Sami-K, Fortune Spice, Dj Victor, Dj Breezy and many more.
A long session of questions and answers characterized the launch which attendants described as satisfactory and successful.
The inaugural awards ceremony will take place on 27th March, 2020 at Kampala Serena Hotel with special performance from Nigeria’s Florocka, who has been into the music and production business for over 27 years.
He will perform alongside other Ugandan artists.
Mr Habasa explained that 13 categories will be unveiled for one to nominate their artist of choice.
These include Artist of the year, Song of the year, Listener’s Choice Album of the Year, Worship Album of the year, New Artist of the year, Video of the year, DJ of the year, Comedian of the year, Film/theater personality of the year, Spoken Word personality of the year, Sports personality of the year, African personality of the year and Kingdom Impact Award.
Nominations will be on Vine Pulse , a subsidiary of Vine Media Group, and later, one will be able to vote those nominated using the same platform. The public vote constitutes of 40% and the award committee 60%, Mr Habasa said..
Addressing the press conference, Mr Habasa introduced radio show host and events MC, Ms Lady Bezo as the liaison between artists, media, fans and the vine awards team.
Ronnie Habasa noted that the new awards project is not here to compete with those present, but they hope to be different in various aspects.
Mr Habasa emphasized that the awards will not take in nominations for secular artists. “We are here to recognize and award Church talent,” he said.
Mr Shadrack Kuteesa from Platinum Concepts said with the experience from the previous awards they have worked with, “we hope to pull off a great and fair show. We will produce the show from start to the end,” he said.
Musician Coopy Bly and Zabuli urged the awards organizers to do much more than just recognise talent on one given night.
They called for solid fruitful engagement of the organizes with the participants. This, they said, should not only happen in Kampala where “most existing awards” have maintained their base, but stretch out to other regions across Uganda.
The Vine Entertainment Awards organisers were also challenged to showcase credibility, order, transparency and excellence.
