THISDAYonline

The 10th edition of the Fanta Fame Music Awards took place at the prestigious Lagoon restaurant in Lagos amidst pageantry, high expectation and pleasant surprise. This year's awards recorded multiple plaque winners among the 22 awards categories. A total of 19 winners emerged to take home the 22 coveted awards this year.

Notable among the artistes that won multiple plaques are Sound Sultan who came tops in 3 awards categories namely; Song of the year awards, Best new act of the year (male) and the Afro beat song of the year. He was followed closely by Eedris Abdulkareem who won 2 awards categories; Artist of the year and Afro Hip-Hop act of the year.

The latest additions to the awards category, the best new rap act/duo or group was won by Rugged Man, while the best Disc Jockey (DJ) category was won by Jimmy Jatt.

Winners in the other categories include the Best Music Producer of the year category which was won by Chris Okoro, the Best Music Video of the year, won by Lagbaja, the Best New Act of the year (female) was clinched by Azeezat, while highlife grand master, Oliver De Coque won the Evergreen awards category, leaving the Highlife Music of the year award to Teddy Obinna.

Artistes promoting religion through music were also honoured at the event; Paul IK Dalro won the Gospel Song of the year, while the Islamic Music Act of the year was won by Alhaji Wasiu Kayode.

Past and present achievers in the Nigerian music industry were also recognized as Nigeria's Abami Eda, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti won the Post-Humous life time achievement awards and The 'Guvnor' Ken Caleb Olumense won the Wale Olomu music personality of the year awards category.

Kwam 1, wale Thompson and African China came tops in the Fuji, Juju and Reggae music of the year categories respectively and were honoured accordingly for their originality, technical and artistic quality. The best TV presenter of the year went to Kenny and D. one of the Prime Time Jamz crew while the radio version of the category went to Ben Omage of Star fm radio station. Morris Kawel won the best studio engineer of the year awards.

Speaking at the ceremony, the Fanta Brand Manager, Sam Edoho disclosed that Brand Fanta has always supported the development of the Nigerian music industry through the opportunities; Fanta has created for the younger generations to exhibit their skills and talents. Fanta took a further step by partnering with FFMA to support the rewarding of excellence and ingenuity to enhance the growth and development of the industry. The idea is to initiate a process to upgrade the industry to a world-class status.

Fanta plans to expand the scope of exploitation in the industry, to attract investment through music in the entertainment and tourism industry.