NDUDUZO WINS BEST OF AFRICA GOSPEL AWARD

DURBAN – The sounds of ‘Gelekece’ filled Durban’s International Convention Centre last Sunday, and Swaziland celebrated.

‘Gelekece’ is a song by local gospel artist Nduduzo Matse and it is now the best song in Africa’s gospel music industry.
Over 5 000 gospel music lovers danced to the song as they watched Matse walk on the SABC 10th Crown Gospel Awards stage to accept his Crown award for Best of Africa Gospel award.

He was named the overall winner in the Best of Africa Gospel category, where he was nominated with Nigeria’s Vitus Onyeze, Jener Manyowa and Ghana’s James Okon.

The glamorous awards ceremony attracted gospel fans and artists from all parts of Southern Africa, and since they were celebrating 10 years of the awards, organisers made it a three day event.

Zanele Mbokazi who is the founder of the awards made sure that fans and artists alike started celebrations as early as last Friday night, where all attendees and nominees were treated to an intimate dinner.

This was followed by rehearsals on Saturday night with the finale being last Sunday where Matse hoisted the country’s flag.

Nominated

When the awards started just after 7pm, Matse looked calm and one could not tell he had been nominated, under one of the largest categories.

The artist rendered a 15 minute energetic set of a medley of gospel songs including ‘Gelekece’, which saw the over 5 000 attendees on their feet singing along.
Just when he completed his set, Zanele Mbokazi walked on stage to announce the winner of the category , and when his name was called Matse literally ran to the stage in a jovial mood to collect his very first international award.

With only 30 seconds given to winners to give their thank you speeches, Matse thanked all those who contributed towards his success and among those he mentioned was his pastor, Shoddy Msibi of the Zakhele Free Evangelical Assemblies and businessman Roccky Mkoko.

He noted that this was a huge achievement in his music career, and that only greater things were to follow.
It should be noted that most of the local gospel music lovers, such as Nothando Hlophe who attended the awards, had mentioned earlier that their night would be made splendid only if Matse won, and he sure did.

Some of those who were the biggest winners on the night include Jumbo who took home the Song of the Year; also making it big was Benjamin Dube who won the Artist of the Decade Award.

Favourite

Best Male Gospel Artist went to Neyi Zimu while Dumi Mkokstad won the Best Song writer award.
The awards lasted until 11pm with the ICC abuzz with song and screams of joy from fans each time their favourite artists won.
Zanele Mbokazi said she was excited with the overall event thanked all those who participated in making the 10th edition the awards a success.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: