Cape Town to host annual music awards

“The move to Cape Town this year is in line with Metro FM's commitment to rotating the locale for the awards, in a bid to enable different cities to enjoy the spin-off tourism and community upliftment benefits that the awards bring with them,” comments Metro FM's station manager Matona Ntshona.

The radio station, in partnership with the City of Cape Town, will shortly unveil its corporate social investment projects for the year.

In a new development for the awards themselves, nominations this year will be decided by a panel of leading music journalists, critics and Metro FM DJs. The panel will nominate three artists in each of the 16 categories and based on this shortlist, the public will then vote for their favourite artists and songs.

“We decided to change the process slightly in an effort to maintain the quality of nominees.” explains Ntshona. “To be eligible for nomination, artists have to have released an album in the past twelve months between October 2006 and this year October 2007. This new approach, we believe, will make the selection process much fairer.”

The nominees will be announced toward the end of August, when the voting lines will be thrown open.

The categories for the 2007 Metro FM Music Awards are as follows:

• Best Male Vocalist Album
  
• Best Female Vocalist Album
  
• Best Newcomer Album
  
• Best R&B Album
  
• Best Kwaito Album
  
• Best African Pop Album
  
• Best Hip Hop Album
  
• Best Gospel Album
  
• Best Jazz Album
  
• Best Group Album
  
• Best Compilation Album
  
• Best Produced Album
  
• Best Song of the Year
  
• Best Styled Artist or Group
  
• Best Dance album