MTV Hosts First Ever African Music Awards

As I was cruising the blogosphere over the weekend, I came across an interesting story that definitely caught me by surprise. MTV, home to all things exploitive and pop, just held their first annual African Music Awards in Abuja, Nigeria this past Saturday. It's a move that could bolster more visibility for music artists on the world's poorest continent, who often complain that there are few outlets to get their music heard outside of Africa. 

The big winner over the weekend was the "KoKo Master" himself, rising Nigerian star, D'banj, who took home the Artist of the Year Award. The win immediately makes him an artist to watch on a global scale and will hopefully bring more recognition to other artists like Wahu of Kenya who took home the Best Female Artists Award and Nigerian rapper Naeto C. who notched the Best New Artist of the Year Award.

Surprisingly, Miami's Flo Rida performed at the award ceremony as did Kelly Rowland of Destiny's Child and the Game. It's crazy that we had a local artist on hand for the African Music Awards but it gives even more credibility to Flo Rida's sound that he was requested to be there. For more details on MTV's historic first African Music Awards, click on this link, and familiarize yourself with some of Africa's hottest music acts.

--Jonathan Cunningham