5 Best (& Bizzare) Moments From Kisima 2012

This year’s Kisima Awards will go down in history as not-badly-attended. Just kidding. It was a full house with surprises, good performances and generally well put together show. Here are some things we learned from last weekend’s grand gala and more unconventional things that took place.

Gospel’s Popularity
Nominees in some categories drew blank reactions from the audience. Actually in all categories except Benga, East African Recognition and Gospel. Every nominee in the gospel category had some level of recognition and proved popular even the traditional gospel artistes.

Rabbit’s Performance
Guy took the show seriously. He appeared on stage in a fitted suit complete with an African print bow-tie and pocket square. For the second bit of his set, he even wore a king’s crown and came out with three violinists for a brilliant performance of one of the most popular poem-disguised-as-a-song of the year.

Political Rally
Apparently, Philip Kisia made the contribution that was used to pay Artiste of the Year last time. A whole million. So, it makes sense for him to be given the podium to say a few words but the barrage of politicians almost bored out the event. Ababu Namwamba said “finally” twice, about 10 minutes apart before saying “and in conclusion” and his speech still wasn’t over. Check out the good and the bad here.

Amina & Solo Sing-off
The two hosts lusted over the Kshs. 2 million throughout the event and at some point, decided to sing just to prove they had what it takes to win it. Solo was actually pretty good. Amina was brilliant. She should take music more seriously…that’s if she isn’t already.

Benga???
One of the most bizzare moments at the awards was the few minutes it took to present the Best Benga category. It seems that this was more popular than any other genre. Every nominee got crazy cheers. From Murimi wa Kahalf’s Ino Ni Momo, Judith Bwire’s (who had just given an electric performance a few minutes earlier) Sihai Malo to Kamande wa Kioi’s Kaana Funny. And when Oluoch Aloka won, the place went wild. Benga seems to be more popular than we thought it was. And the guy dressed in an interesting kitenge suit with shorts and trainers seemed more shy than you’d expect from someone who made the most popular song about women’s waists. Check out the winners’ list here.