Youths from across the country attended this year’s edition of Urban Music Party (UMP) Festival at BAT ground in Blantyre on Sunday.
It was a gathering that proved that the youth can contribute to the socio-economic development of Malawi through the arts.
With bright faces and hearts filled with happiness, the youths embraced the 2015 UMP passionately.
They sung along, danced, mingled and drunk to symbolise their emotional attachment to the event.
This year’s UMP was designed to provide the youth with a bigger platform to showcase their potential and enjoy the proceedings in a fair manner and to their satisfaction.
They had the choice to select good music that quenched their thirst. Any bad song selection by the DJs could be turned down through jeering.
This made the DJs to stay be on top of their game on the turntables.
In an effort to create an enabling platform for young people to showcase their talents, there was a segment of emcee/rap battle among the budding artists, which was hosted by rapper Genii Blakk. This made the youths feel part of the event as they participated through performances and cheering the contestants.
In other categories, dancehall artist Sangie won the new artist accolade, song of the year was Mwano by Lilongwe-based Martse featuring Kelly Kay, best video was Dirvoce by Janta, whereas best artist accolade went to Gwamba and the lifetime achiever went to the late Mafunyeta.
Apart from Chimz Kelly from Zambia, other artists that performed at the UMP include Martse, Diktator, Fredokiss, Daredevils, BlakJak, Kelly Kay, Piksy, Trumel, Sangie, Dali, Mwanache, Trap Squad and Bucci.
Spokesperson of the event, Kimpho Loka, described the 2015 UMP as success which had impressive youth support.
He said: “Our aim is to create a platform where urban talent should be exposed and promoted. And the idea behind the awards is to honour and motivate artists to achieve more in their art.” n
