Malawian musician Piksy has received a nomination for the 2016 Kora All Africa Music Awards, announced on Thursday.
The artist, born Evans Zangazanga, has been nominated for “Best Male – Southern Africa”, whose winner will receive US$50,000 (approximately K30 million).
Piksy got the nomination for his first acoustic song “Moto” taken from his 2015 album “Mnthunzi” released on July 4th.
The afro rapper/singer is among 156 artists in 26 categories of the Pan African music awards scheduled to take place on March 20th, 2016 in Windhoek, Namibia.
In the “Best Male – Southern Africa” category, Piksy will be facing competition from South Africa’s AKA, two Angolan artists C4 Pedro and Coréon Dú, Namibian Gazza and Zambia’s Petersen.
“It’s a surprise. Sometimes you just do music and take it for granted but you get surprised when things like these happen,” he commented on the nomination.
The Blantyre artist added: “I must say I am very humbled that my music, though in vernacular can be recognized internationally. And most of all, ‘Moto’ is the first acoustic song that I have done, and this is a good sign”.
The Pan African Cultural Awards Ceremony rewards artists of African Continent and its diaspora. Founded in 1994 by Ernest Adjovi, they are comparable to the American Grammy Awards in intent.
Since its inception, the Kora Awards have been staged twelve times on the African Continent. For the first ten years, the ceremony has taken place in South Africa. It has since moved to Burkina Faso and Côte d’Ivoire. In 2015 the awards reached a permanent agreement to host the awards in Namibia.
Wambali Mkandawire was the last Malawian musician to receive a Kora Award nomination, in 2003 for “Best Southern African Artist”.