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Metro’s winners and losers

Johannesburg - Rapper Kwesta and Babes Wodumo, who had two of the country’s biggest songs last year, left empty-handed at the Metro FM Awards last weekend after Mabala Noise and Ambitiouz Entertainment cleaned up.

Metro FM winners are voted for by the public, and independent record labels embark on a voting blitz to ensure they win. As a result, it won’t always be the most deserving track that wins.

The big winner of the night was Mabala Noise’s Nasty C, who won four awards, including Song of the Year, Best Hip-Hop Album, Best Male Album and Best New Artist. Other winners from the label were Riky Rick, L’vovo, Kelly Khumalo, Du Boiz and Musa Sukwene.

Ambitiouz led the nominations with Amanda Black, Miss Pru and Sjava. Its only artists who didn’t win were A-Reece and B3nchMarQ, who recently left the label along with rapper Fifi Cooper.

The awards were audited by SABC internal auditors.

“For the past 16 years, we have used internal auditors. It is a fair process,” said SABC spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago, adding that the awards’ rules were clear and could not be changed just because some people were unhappy with the result.

“Why are these concerns about the process only raised now? Why couldn’t this be discussed before the awards ceremony?” he asked.

“Mabala Noise did not win, it was the artists who won. We have not entered Mabala Noise anywhere – there is no category for record labels, so we aren’t going to entertain these political issues that are being raised.”

Mroza’s SABC Summer Song of the Year win with the song Van Damme in January shocked many who believed Babes Wodumo’s Wololo or King Monada’s Ska Bhora Moreki would take it. An audit report SABC released showed the song won by a 5% margin.

Kganyago said the results of the Metros wouldn’t be made public because there were simply too many categories, but “we are open to sharing results of the awards when and if there are concerns being raised with us”.

5. Kwesta 

Ngud’, nominated for Song of the Year, Best Collaboration, Best Hip-Hop Album and Best Male Album, was the most playlisted song on South African radio last year, played by 92 stations across the country.

Kwesta lost to Nasty C for Song of the Year, Best Hip-Hop and Best Male Album. Ambitiouz’s Miss Pru scooped best collaboration for Ameni, which was up against Kwesta’s Mayibabo.

Ngud’ debuted at number one on iTunes and at number seven on EMA’s Local Top 10 chart. It peaked at number one.

Between 25 November 2015 and 9 December, the Metro FM submissions period, Ngud’ was played 189 times on the station with 106.72 million listener impressions, according to airplay.

4. Riky Rick

He won Best Single for Sidlukotini, which had 130 plays on Metro FM with 140 million listener impressions.

3. Babes Wodumo

Babes Wodumo was nominated for Best Female, Song of the Year, Best Dance Album and Best New Artist.

Her hit, Wololo, had 189 plays on Metro FM with 199.45 million listener impressions between November 2015 and this month.

2. Du Boiz

Mabala Noise’s Du Boiz won Best Music Video for Dope Dream, which had 35 061 YouTube views by Friday. Fellow nominee Khuli Chana’s more artistic offering, One Source, had 161 087 views.

Dope Dream received 41 plays between November 2015 and this month, with 48.6 million listener impressions on the station.

1. Nasty C

Nasty C, whose Hell Naw won Song of the Year, was also nominated for album Bad Hair Extensions. Another track from the record, Allow, was also nominated.

Hell Naw was released in February last year and peaked at number four on Entertainment Monitoring Africa’s (EMA’s) Local Top 10 chart.

It was made available for free and was downloaded more than 11 000 times.

Allow had 14 plays at Metro FM during the submissions period, with 14.65 million listener impressions.

Between November 2015 and this month, Hell Naw had 130 plays on Metro FM with 119.35 million listener impressions.

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