13 Dec 2016

For most people, music awards are mainly about the artist and which songs impressed during the course of the year.

But once in a while it would not hurt to celebrate the men and women who put the music together; the producers.

Since the introduction of the Yarona Fm Music Awards (YAMAs) in 2014, the players in the music industry have welcomed the development noting the monotony of Botswana Music Union (BOMU) Awards and this has been a good growth for the music industry as a whole.

With the attendance of the mayor of Gaborone, Kagiso Thutlwe and the  US ambassador, Earl Miller, the 2016 YAMAs were a sight to behold besides a few empty seats on the night.

The performances were mind blowing and artists along with fans were dressed to the nines as local music was celebrated.Highlight of the night belonged to none other than well-known record maker, Presley Metshe, who is popularly known Pres Beatz who was showered with praises from various artists and given the Hall of Fame at the YAMAs.

Pres Beatz has been in the music industry for over 20 years and has been the go to guy for producing.

During the heydays of the Ramco Loco buzz, Pres Beatz had his hand on the pulse of every artist that there was among them Vee, Mosako, Eskimos, S.C.A.R, Kast and K-Bos to mention but a few. There was a saying that “if Pres hadn’t endorsed it, then it aint real” and his work spoke for itself and it still does.

It was indeed a fitting tribute for a man who many consider to have had a hand in almost of all the big artist of Botswana.

Another legend in the game was also honoured on the night as he received the Yarona Fm Icon award and it was none other than Losika Seboni, aka Luzboy.

Luzboy revolutionised our perception of radio and inspired a whole new generation of budding radio presenters to break out of their cocoon of self-censorship and push freedom of expression to its limits.

Meanwhile, right from the word go, it seemed most of the attendees were rooting for Ban T to sweep everything he was nominated for and Team Distant along with Amantle Brown were right on his trail.

Even though Ban T did not win every category he was nominated for, the young lad did end up being the biggest winner of the night as he scooped three awards.

Best Single Hip-Hop/Motswako (Ban T/Faded Gang-Why So Faded Anthem), Best Single Male (Ban T-Naomi) and Hunters People’s Choice Artist of the Year awards all went to the young rapper Ban T who took the country by storm this year and put in work.

Hot on his heels were Team Distant who bagged two awards, Producer of the Year and Best Dance Single (Team Distant & Chrispin The Drummer / Han C-Sedi Laka).

Not to be outdone, Amantle Brown also won two awards of Best Single Female (Amantle Brown-Black Mampatile) and the night’s biggest category of Mascom Song of the Year with Black Mampatile. ENDS