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Mbulelo Mpofu, Showbiz Reporter

TOMORROW, Bulawayo will come alive as the annual Roil Bulawayo Arts Awards (BAA) ceremony, a night to honour creative elements in the city, will roar to life.

The sixth edition of the premier award show will be held at the Bulawayo City Hall auditorium and in honour of arts legend Cont Mhlanga who died on August 1 this year, the awards will run under the theme: “Celebrating Arts Excellence, Umkhulu lo Msebenzi” adopted from the Amakhosi mantra “Umkhulu lo Msebenzi”.

Bulawayo City Hall

RoilBAA spokesperson Nkululeko Nkala said preparations are on course for the awards ceremony.

“Preparations are at an advanced stage as almost everything is set. The sound system personnel are busy getting everything in place for the event,” Nkala said. 

He said for this year’s edition, they roped in Turvel as their official transport partner. 

“That’s a first for us. We want to ensure seamless transportation with this partnership.”

The main hosts for the event will be Mbo Mahocs and Arthur Evans.

“The red-carpet host will be Iyanda and the bulk of our performances will be from nominees, but they’ll be predominantly run by an ensemble and the Song of the Year nominees,” Nkala said.

A first for the event, Nkala said an after-party will be held at the venue.

“For the first time as well, people have requested that we have an after-party at the same venue. We’re excited about that as we have a stellar line-up.” 

The after-party will be headlined by Ronald Stone, Slamma, Crazy Dee, DJ Mzoe and Mandie Mae.

Ronald Stone said performing at the after-party is going to be great.

“This is arguably my biggest engagement since the beginning of my solo run. I’m thrilled and excited about this party. I promise that it’s going to be lit. It’s been a roller-coaster year for me, a really dry season, performance-wise. I really hoped I could have done many more gigs. “However, it was a good one in terms of creation as I did quite a few collaborations and got in contact with new connections production-wise,” said the Waenda singer.

Leading the pack of nominations this year is Msiz’kay and MJ Sings with three nominations each and coincidentally, they are the only male artistes who held one-man shows in the past year around the city. – @eMKlass_49