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Bongani Ndlovu Showbiz Correspondent
LOCAL artistes are crying foul over the treatment they received last weekend at the Zimbabwe Music Awards (Zima) Bulawayo nominees’ party as their music was barely played.
On a night when one would have expected DJs Crazy Black and Big Gee to celebrate the nominated artistes’ achievements by playing their music, the DJs, although they are novices, felt otherwise and stuck to their usual international playlists with a sprinkling of the nominees’ music.

The party which was held at Horizon Pub and Grill saw the city’s who is who converging at the pub to celebrate with the 12 nominated artistes who will be making their way to Harare on Wednesday for the awards ceremony. The night was however a sad chapter in the city’s music industry if one takes a closer look at proceedings.

The whole purpose of the nominees’ party was to familiarise fans with the nominated artistes and show them why their music had been nominated for such a prestigious award ceremony.

One would have expected the DJs to throw in some local house music as most of the Bulawayo artistes were nominated for the Best House Music category, namely Djembe Monks, Khuxxman, Skaiva, and Defined House. Their music put together is more than enough content for a three-hour party.

To attest to the fact that the nominated artistes had party tracks, Qeqeshiwe, Alaina, Mzoe 7 and Defined House brought the house down when they performed and got the crowd on their feet.

Most artistes and revellers who attended the party said they were disappointed by the DJs and organisers of the event as they hoped to sample music from the nominated musicians.

“As it was a Zima nominees’ party I expected the DJs to play tracks from the nominees’ albums. It would have been good to have a DJ announcing that this is so and so’s track which was nominated for the Zimas and go on to cite the nomination.

“We’re not that exposed to music from Bulawayo as it’s rarely played on radio so I was hoping to hear the music and also buy their albums,” said a disappointed Nkosi Ncube.

Even though the club has flat screen televisions which could have been used to flight the nominated videos, organisers of the event did not make use of them.

Local hip hop artiste Elvis “MaEli” Ndhlovu said he was disappointed at what the DJs did as it defeated the purpose of the party.

“The DJs were more concerned with playing music from outside the country not concerned with our artistes. So how are people supposed to listen to know the music of it’s not played at a Zima party,” he said.

MaEli said it was not about showing deejaying skills but it was about showcasing Bulawayo’s talent.

“This was not a deejaying competition, sometimes we’ve to play our own music and promote our own people,” he said.

MaEli, who won a ticket to attend the awards ceremony, said he was having second thoughts on attending considering how local artistes were treated.

DJ Joe the OG who was the host at the show concurred but distanced himself from organisation.

“The DJs were supposed to play music from the local artistes who were nominated. I was called last minute to help and I also noticed that they weren’t playing local music, but it was not my place to impose my will on what the organisers wanted,” he said.

One of the organisers of the event, director of Hunnar Management Agency Gilmore Tee Moyo, said they understood the concerns of the fans.

“I know that some things during that day did not go well, but it’s difficult to get hold of Bulawayo music. So it was beyond our control as we didn’t have the music,” he said.

However, the same happened in Harare at Pariah State which also hosted a similar party on the same night. According to those who frequent the club, they expected to meet the nominated artistes but that was not the case as most of the musicians did not attend the event. Their music was barely played too as DJs also played music from across the borders.