Botswana Music Awards set to return in May

The event will be held online and marks the first awards ceremony since the election of a new Botswana Musicians Union (BOMU) committee in August last year.

“Among the projects that BOMU is working on this year are the Botswana Music Awards, which we are planning to host around 1 May this year,” BOMU president Phemelo Lesokwane told Music In Africa. “They will be held virtually because of the pandemic. Otherwise, we would do a physical ceremony.”

Lesokwane told local media that BOMU was making efforts to rebuild the organisation and revive its reputation. “We have decided to share the work that we do with industry players who are experts in different fields, to make BOMU visible and prove that we are professional and to continue giving people the power to run BOMU and bring about change.

“We want these awards to grow our artists because we are planning to have incentives for the winners – monetary or a recording deal. We’ll be reducing the number of categories because we have realised that some are similar and should be merged. We are also working on securing sponsorship for each category.”

More projects for artists

Lesokwane said BOMU wanted to engage the government and corporate sector to help bring new projects to fruition.

“We are trying to do virtual music concerts with our custodian the Ministry of Youth Empowerment, Sport and Culture Development and First National Bank of Botswana to empower artists through those virtual performances in our district chapters, which are outside town. We have realised that most corporate companies concentrate on artists based in [the capital] Gaborone and those who have excelled well in music, and forget upcoming artists.”

He added: “What we are also planning to do after the pandemic is the Market Day for artists all over our chapters where artists will be selling their products on the same date. Artists will be performing for free on that day. Those events will be sponsored and we will send proposals to different companies so that they can sponsor the event, which is designed to support local music and art.”