We are all Winners

Now that the NAMA fever has subsided and we have all resumed our normal duties as Namibians, I would like to thank the NBC and MTC for celebrating and honouring the Namibian music industry for these two special nights that will go down in the history books as a perfectly orchestrated celebration of Namibian music. To MTC, NBC and all the sponsors, please continue empowering our artists.

Of course the event was not without its flaws and dramas, but for today only I will let it slide. I will rather focus on the award ceremony itself. Many people walked away with due accolades and trophies on those glorious nights. This had me wondering…have you made it in life when you have won an award? Does winning an award mean you are successful? I definitely do not think so! We are all winners!! We are all victorious and the award should merely be a token of appreciation.

Many artists have never won awards, but have gone on and won over the hearts of their fans and have influenced many lives. I am by no means downplaying the importance of award ceremonies, they are very vital for anyone’s confidence, but it does not have to end there. We all know of a few artists who have won awards and they were never heard of again after that. Nowadays we have people who win awards and think they are the best or the most successful people, but this is not the case. Awards do not define you, a surplus of awards or a lack of them does not mean you are successful or you are not, let me make this clear.

Any individual award won by a person should be beneficial to that person’s industry. So when an artist or a musician wins an award for being the best in a certain category, the award is not his, he deserves the award for all the hard work, but the credit should go to the whole industry he operates in, because one individual does not contribute to a whole industry alone, because there is a network of people who also need to be celebrated. They say it takes a whole village to raise a child and the same applies in the music industry. May we continue working together and striving for an industry that we can leave for the next generation to benefit from it too.

Let us all push for unity in our respective industries, because we are improving them.

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June Shimuoshili