November 1, 2017 By Jariatu S. Bangura
SLeDU Secretary General
In an effort to promote Sierra Leonean music, the Sierra Leone DJs Union (SLeDU) yesterday (31st October, 2017) launched the 2017 national musical award at the conference hall of the Ministry of Youth Affairs.
The national music award, which will take place on 29th December, 2017, will be hosted in Bo town, southern Sierra Leone.
Secretary-General of SLeDU, K-Flash Bangura, who chaired the occasion, said the award would be geared towards promoting the country’s music industry, adding that the DJs are key players in the enhancement and promotion of music in Sierra Leone.
He said at the moment, the music industry is going down the drain with no sign of progress, while calling on musicians to focus on producing positive songs for human consumption.
President of SLeDU, Abdul Karim Koroma, said since the establishment of the union in 2012, they have organized two national music awards at the National Stadium, noting that the two events attracted many Sierra Leonean musicians, although it was interrupted by the outbreak of the Ebola epidemic.
“We are restructuring the union in order to improve on the way music is being promoted. The music industry has almost collapsed due to lack of good promoters,” he said.
He said government must be considered as a key player if the industry should ever be developed.
“The reason for choosing Bo town is that we need to decentralize the event as we all know, Freetown is not Sierra Leone. It is important to award musicians who have performed exceptionally well in the music industry. This will motivate them to do more,” he said.
Vice President, Jesse J. Amara, said they will select the best songs that have been produced since January to December 29, 2017, noting that nomination will be from different categories of music and that the nomination list will be out by next week for voting to start taking place.
He stated that there will be a fair display of awards to nominees but urged that musicians do good songs that will enable them be voted for against the award’s night.
“We are doing this award as a way to push our musicians to do more songs in order for them to have better producers and better promoters in the industry,” he said.