Over the weekend, Mavin Record honcho, Don Jazzy, was honoured with a ‘Lifetime Achievement Award’ by the organisers of The Beatz Awards. The legendary producer was honoured for his contribution to the music industry and had an award category renamed after him.
In an interview with The Nation, the Chief Executive Officer of Beatz Awards, Elijah John, disclosed that the former ‘The New Discovery Producer category’ will now be called the ‘DON JAZZY NEW DISCOVERY PRODUCER’ .
While receiving the award at the Shell Hall, MUSON Centre, Onikan, Lagos, Don Jazzy thanked the organisers for the award and praised them for their consistency over the years.
He also added a twist to the newly formed category by adding N1 million cash prize to the winner from next year’s edition.
“One of the great things about the fifth edition is that a category is created in the name of Donjazzy, and the winner will be going home with 1 million Naira come next year,” said Elijah.
“The way this is going to work is that, the new producers coming up with hit songs would be shortlisted for this category, and the best five will go into a battle whereby voting will commence for the best in the year of review. We want to thank Donjazzy for the gestures of supporting this with a cash reward and we also want to thank the sponsors for believing in what we do.”
Speaking on including cash interest on the other categories, Elijah said: “This is a start of such laudable gesture and we are considering other options to see how cash rewards can be included in some of the categories. Meanwhile, sponsors are already showing interest to support some other categories in terms of cash. So by next year, we would be unveiling a lot of things.”
The fifth edition of the awards was hosted by popular musician, Dr. Sid and the crowd was thrilled by performances from Johnny Drille, Idyll, Reil C and top comedians like Emmaohmygod, Deeone, Omobaba, Phronesis among others.
One of the biggest winners of the night was music producer Kel P vibes who bagged three awards for Afro Beat Producer Of The Year, Afro Dancehall Producer Of The Year and Producer Of The Year, closely followed by Johnny Drille who bagged two Afro Rock Producer Of The Year and Song Writer Of The Year.
Other winners were Afro Pop Producer Of The Year (Cracker Mallo), Afro R&B Producer Of The Year, (Killertunes), Afro Hip-Hop Producer of The Year (Rexxie), Afro Highlife Producer Of The Year (Orbeat), Afro Soul Producer of The Year (Seyikeyz), Afro Gospel Producer Of The Year (Skerzbeat), Mixing & Mastering Engineer of The Year (STG), Music Video Director of The Year (Unlimited LA), Choreographer of The Year (Don Flex), New Discovery Producer of The Year (Ozedikus), Male Dj of The Year (Dj Spinall), Female Dj of The Year (Dj Cuppy), Entertainment Tv Station Award (Terrestrial) of The Year, (Silverbird Television), Entertainment Tv Station Award (Cable) of The Year (MTV Base), Radio Station of The Year (Soundcity Radio), OAP Of The Year (Moet Abebe), Artist Manager of The Year, Asa Asika, Record Label Of The Year (DMW), Blog of The Year (Bellanaija) and Online Music Platform of The Year (Tooxclusive).