Daddy Owen with Kerah and Allan Aaron backed by his crew
Check out the Pics (courtesy Ben Kiruthi)

NAIROBI - THE 5th annual Groove Awards with Skiza was held on Sat 1st May 2010 at the KICC in Nairobi. The event was streamed live on KenyanGospel.com and watched by over 800 viewers. Daddy Owen was the biggest winner scooping six awards including Male Artist of the Year and Album of the Year. His collabo called Kiriro with Allan Aaron and Kerah netted Song of the Year, Video of the Year, Collabo of the Year and Central Song of the Year. Apart from Daddy Owen, this year's winners were evenly distributed as the only other artists winning multiple awards were Emmy Kosgei and Eko Dydda. Emmy Kosgei got 2 nods for Female Artist of the Year and Rift Valley Song of the Year and Eko Dydda bagged 2 for New Artist / Group of the Year and Hip Hop Song of the Year for his collabo with Holy Dave on the song Niko na Reason.

GROOVE AWARDS 2010 WINNERS: CHECK OUT THE COMPLETE LIST HERE

 

The Show:
MC's Kanjii Mbugua and Amani Maranga kept the event lively in their delivery and humour. They took everyone through the evolution of Gospel music over the years, which was the event's main theme. R-Kay took to the stage with Mbuvi and Suzanne Kamanzi performing his earlier hits like Shammah's Ukilya Moko and Usichoke. Esther Wahome performed Kuna Dawa and Mary Atieno's Adamu na Eva as Emmy Kosgei also dropped her hits.  Kanjii and Pete Odera performed hits from Hart, Limit X and Milele among others backed by Mavuno Worship Team. Astar, Rigga and LC's performances celebrated the rise of Gospel hip hop. LC caused a stir when she introduced Rigga as "Rigga my ni**a".

The highlight of the evening was the back-to-back performances at the last hour of the event. Daddy Owen hit the stage first with Dunco performing Kupe de Kalle and System ya Kapungala. He then introduced Juliani who sang Hela and did some freestyles. Jimmie Gait was next with Huratiti then M.O.G followed with Let Him Go. They then introduced Eko Dydda and Holy Dave performing Niko na Reason and by this time, everyone in the hall was on their feet and singing back to the 'stagger' song.

Led by Mavuno Worship Team, there was a dedication to those who have left a mark in the Gospel industry and have gone ahead of us as names of Emmachichi, Ev Anastacia Karanja, VUC and Angela Chibalonza were projected on the big screens. Other performers of the evening were the African Children's Choir who opened up the show and dance group Ignitaz. Mavuno Church lead pastor Muriithi Wanjau closed with a word of prayer.

The Surprises:
The biggest surprise had to be Wernono Family winning Group of the Year and beating perennial winners M.O.G.  Wernono has always been consistent in releasing music since the onset of the Groove Awards six years ago and always netted nominations in Kisima, CHAT (Chaguo la Teeniez) and Groove Awards but the win always eluded them. This was probably the most deserved win of the event. Wernono's win ushered in another surprise as for the first time in 2 years, M.O.G lost in a category they had been nominated in. They have previously won all their CHAT, Kisima and Groove Awards nominations.

There was no playback from CDs as all live performances were backed by a live band. The big media houses swamped the place and seemed to embrace gospel music than previous years. KTN and Capital FM brought in their OB (Outside Broadcast) vans with KTN hosting the show Vibe City live from KICC. As had been publicized, NTV broadcast the event live to millions in Kenya and Uganda.

Capital FM Owner Chris Kirubi (aka DJ CK) was one of the invited guests presenting awards to winners. He presented the winner of the DJ Category. Another prominent personality was Churchill (Daniel Ndambuki).

Another surprise was AFLEWO (Africa Let's Worship) winning Worship Team / Choir of the Year.  They hold a hugely popular worship conference once a year and beat nominees like Mavuno Worship Team and VUC who give performances all year round. Lucy wa Ngunjiri of Kameme FM winning Radio Presenter of the Year was also a pleasant surprise as urban artists and presenters had dominated most categories of the Awards in previous years. Another hotly contested category was in the Live Band of the Year where Zidi the Band took the title. Either of the nominees would have deservedly taken the win.


Reflections:
Hip Hop (or rap) seems to have had a big year thanks to Eko Dydda, Holy Dave and Wernono Fam and the wins seem to reflect this.

The once dominant Christian Radio station Family FM which has since rebranded to Radio 316 has never won any of the radio categories despite getting nominations every year. Mike Gitonga, their very talented and hilarious breakfast show presenter could give any radio presenter a run for their money. However, we believe the station's listener base is very small despite having frequencies in the 3 major cities. Their soft rock / CCM (Contemporary Christian Music) format could be the dagger as most Kenyans tend to favour local content, reggae and hip hop that is rarely played.

The nominees looked great at the red carpet though we expected to see more stunning dressing and creativity. Holy Dave's yellow suit and matching 'goggles' was a step from the ordinary.

The organizer's decision to only use a live band in the performances really gave the songs a fresh sound. Jimmie Gait's performance has to be one of best of the night as he had all the trappings of a 'showbiz performer' at an awards show. Clad in a tux and sun glasses, he seemed to have borrowed a leaf from international shows (which is not necessarily a bad thing).

Two days before the awards ceremony, we made our predictions on the winners. We scored just above average... well, we got 16 of the 31 categories right. Last year, we got 13 of the 25 categories.

Live Stream:
We streamed the entire event live on this site. We impremented a lot of viewer interactivity where we had live twitter feeds powered by KenyaMOJA.com We displayed, in real time, all tweets that mentioned Groove Awards. Then there was the live chat where viewers interacted and commented on the live performances (also in real time) as well as a Facebook box to update one's status about the event.

The live stream of the event was not without hiccups. We had tested the signal with the organizers and NTV the previous night and everything seemed right. On Thursday, about $500 had been paid to a certain internet  service provider (ISP) in the city to give us 10Mbps of dedicated bandwidth for the awards day. Even until an hour to the event, the ISP had not installed the services at the venue. This led us to look for a last minute solution which wasn't that great. To make matters worse, we did not notice the 50 person limit on the service we were using which left out many people. We however corrected the situation about 2 hours into the show where we used a different service leading to a bump in viewers from all six continents. Check out a graphical representation of our site visitors for May 1st 2010 from our google analytics service. The greener the shade the more the people from that region.

Special thanks to Groove Awards organizers Mo Sound Entertainment who include Kevin Mulei (Owner), Nancy Kahenia (PR) and Sebastian Wafula (Web) for the live stream. We also thank NTV for giving us their video feed (which was raw and uninterrupted). We plan on getting the DVD of the event and upload it at a later time on this site.

Download tracks from most of the winners at www.kenyandownloads.com

Groove Awards 2010 Winners
Groove Awards 2010 Pictures
Groove Awards 2010 Predictions

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Groove Awards 2009 Winners
Groove Awards 2009 Recap
Groove Awards 2009 Pictures
Groove Awards 2009 Predictions
Groove Awards 2008 Winners
Groove Awards 2008 Nominees
Groove Awards 2008 Pictures