9 finalists stand a chance to present MTN Record of the Year award
TITLE SPONSORS MTN ANNOUNCE 9 FINALISTS FOR A ONCE-IN-A-LIFETIME EXPERIENCE AT MTN SAMA 18
While the country awaits anxiously for the music industry’s night of the stars on Monday 30 April, one lucky music fan will get his or her once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity to present the popular MTN Record of the Year live on SABC 1, and bag R180 000 in cash while at it. MTN, title sponsor of the MTN SAMAs for the 9th consecutive year, has announced the nine finalists of the ‘Feel the Fame’ competition that it ran leading up to the MTN SAMAs.
“The MTN Feel the Fame competition is one of MTN’s initiatives that seek to give back to its current and prospective customers for their support for local music,” explains Serame Taukobong, Chief Marketing Officer at MTN SA. “We introduced the ‘Feel the Fame’ competition in appreciation of the passionate music fans and wanted to give them an opportunity to experience thrill and bling of being part of the MTN SAMAs.”
The finalists are amongst those who voted for the MTN Record of the Year and downloaded a track by one of the nominees from MTNPlay.com. By so doing, they were automatically entered into a lucky draw. Nine finalists were drawn and will be chaperoned VIP style to Sun City for MTN SAMA 18. The overall winner of the ‘feel the Fame’ COMPETITION will be announced on Sunday, 29 April, a day before they go on stage to present the MTN Record of the Year statuette.
The nine finalists are from five provinces nationally, with
Free State leading the batch with three finalists:
– Buthi Mokoena (Riverside)
– Malifi Mohale (Hanemaal, Phumolong)
– Pelo Guda (Tladi Village, Bloemfontein).
Eastern Cape follows with two finalists:
– Aaron Joseph from Umtata
– Busisiwe Masanabo from Stertspruit Location.
Other finalists include: Chris Mhari from Tzaneen in Limpopo; Lindiwe Msimanga from Harrismith and Thulisile Gububela from Kwa-Zulu Natal and Greachen Issacs from Cape Town.
The MTN Record of the Year category is the only category in the MTN SAMAs whom the winner is decided by the public through SMS votes. The public are given a list of 20 nominees comprising of artists, duos or groups who made big noise through their music in 2011. Each of the 20 nominees have been allocated a letter ranging from “A” to “T” and the public can vote by sending an SMS with the letter assigned to their favourite artist to 083 123 SAMA (7262) at standard SMS rates. Based on the number of votes each artist would have received, MTN will announce five shortlisted RoY nominees on 27 April. The public will then vote for the RoY nominee whom they think should win using the same artist code that artists had been using. Voting lines will close on the night of the awards (30 April) at 21H30 and the winner will be announced during the live broadcast of the awards on SABC 1 at 22H00 after an audit process.
“The MTN SAMAs are about the people – fans who are passionate about music and support the industry” adds Taukobong. “MTN is focused on rewarding prospective and current customers for their loyalty to South African music and creating memorable experiences for them at the MTN SAMAs. We look forward to yet another spectacular evening where our musicians come out to shine.”