The International Committee of the All Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA, a continental showpiece to celebrate the rich musical heritage of Africa and her talented artistes for the economic growth of the continent, has opened submission of entries for musical works across Africa for the 2014 edition.

Entries open from May 15, 2014 to July 5, 2014 and the following music professionals of African origin living either on the continent or abroad are eligible to enter for the award under the 30 categories: Artistes, Songwriters, Video Directors, Music Producers and Music Journalists as well as unrecorded artistes who can upload their songs/videos on YouTube.

Works to be submitted must be produced in the year under review –May 31, 2013 to July 4, 2014.

Format of submission: Detailed information about eligibility and format of submission is available on www.afrima.org.

Entries should be done by completing the registration form on AFRIMA website and other AFRIMA social media platforms namely Twitter: @AFRIMAWARDS and Facebook:www.facebook.com/AFRIMA2014. A URL link of the uploaded work on YouTube, SoundCloud, MySpace, and other compatible platforms must be included in the space provide on the entry registration form.

For hard copy entries, download the registration form and the completed copy alongside two copies of the entry must be sent to the nearest physical address provided on the AFRIMA website. Qualified entries will be selected by the Academy of AFRIMA which consists of the Jury and College of Voters.

Revealing further information about the make-up of the Academy, AFRIMA Regional Director, Central Africa, Mr Ernest Ewane, said “The Jury comprises of 13 people who have spent reasonable amount of years in the music industry and have vast knowledge in music, who do not perform or produce songs anymore and people who are well respected in the industry across Africa and Diaspora. They are professionals with impeccable understanding of music”.

AFRIMA Co-Producer/Regional Director East Africa, Mr. Mike Strano added, “After the Jury has performed the duty of selecting qualified nominations, it collapses into the Academy which consists of 527 members to vote for the categories.

In this process of selecting nominees and eventual winners of the coveted award trophy, AFRIMA is very keen to uphold its FACE IT value which stands for Fairness, Accountability, Creativity, Excellence, Integrity and Transparency.

The task of the International Committee of AFRIMA is to ensure that the Academy is not biased along ethnic, regional or age lines in terms of composition. So, there will be equal representation for all music genres”, Mr. Strano explained.

The 2014 All Africa Music Awards will produce a star-studded, world-class event in Nigeria on October 21 to 25, 2014, with live performances and television broadcast to 84 countries on 109 television stations around the world.