Music production in Cape Verde has increased significantly since the pandemic

The Cabo Verde Music Awards organization believes the country’s music production has grown significantly in 2023 following the instability caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, deciding that there will be eight more nominees at this year’s gala.

“I believe that this growth in music production is also a reflection of the stability in the cultural sector. We have already gone through all these more unstable moments caused by the pandemic and now production is starting to follow its natural course,” Soraya de Deus spoke to Lusa about the organization of the Cape Verde Music Awards (CVMA).

The 13th gala of the Official Cape Verdean Music Awards will take place on June 1, returning to the city of Praia after being held for the first time on the island of Sal last year.

The CVMA’s communications director said there was a “significant increase” in production in contemporary music-related categories such as pop, kizomba, hip-hop or afrobeat, leading the organization to increase the number of nominees in eight categories from three up to four.

The competition will feature the same 17 categories, but the number of nominees will increase from 51 to 59, and digital or physical entries will be launched between January 1 and December 31, 2023.

“We have also noticed that there are more and more ways to record, and record well, more and more studios, more and more platforms on which artists can present their work,” confirmed Soraya de Deus, believing that there will be growth continue in the future. coming years.

Along with the increase in production volumes, the person in charge noted the improvement in the quality of Cape Verdean music since the establishment of the music awards in 2011, which is one of the developments that sets the cultural agenda in the country and throughout Lusophone Africa.

“Today, I feel that all artists enjoy participating in the CVMA, they enjoy receiving CVMA awards, and they know that in order to get there, they need to create quality music that has social recognition and popularity,” the representative said.

In this sense, he said that he believed that the event was a “great and very stable stimulus” for Cape Verdean artists. “The CVMA is already a defining factor in an artist’s life and career,” he added.

The gala returns “home” to Porto da Praia, in what is considered an “unlikely” location, a “challenge” made possible by a partnership with Enapor, the company that manages the country’s ports, Soraya de Deus said.

The CVMA Academy is already selecting the nominees, which will be announced on April 19 in Lisbon, following last year in the US, where the strategy is to internationalize the award.

Another way to spread the award and Cape Verdean music across borders is to invite foreign guests and media representatives, especially from Portuguese-speaking countries.

“We fulfill this role and help artists to internationalize, become more famous, establish partnerships with musicians from other latitudes, and this has happened and has been reflected in many ways,” he explained.

Luso-Angolan Jimmy P and Neima, who won Popular Song of the Year in the previous edition, were the first special guests of the gala.

The budget of the event is about 18 million escudos (163 thousand euros).