Home | Entertainment | NOTHANDO ASKS FANS TO IGNORE TWO OF THE FIVE SWAMA NODS

NOTHANDO ASKS FANS TO IGNORE TWO OF THE FIVE SWAMA NODS

Font size: Decrease font Enlarge font

MBABANE – She declined two of her five nominations, the MTN SWAMMA committee refused to excuse her and now she asks her fans to kindly vote for just the three categories she recognises.


Gospel artist Nothando Hlophe on June 5 addressed a formal letter to the organisers of the MTN SWAMA awards, particularly Larry Mhlanga, asking that she be removed from two categories Newcomer of The Year and Song of The Year.


The gospel artist has asked her fans to simply vote for her only in the three remaining categories Artist of The Year, Female Artist of The Year and Best Gospel Music Artist.
Hlophe’s reasons were the fact that in 2015 she had been nominated in the National Arts and Culture Awards for the same category and in 2016 also got nominated in another award show for same, now that she has since been nominated for the third year running in same category.


Hlophe revealed that it was unfair of her to expect her fans, which she feels are the same audience to keep paying monies voting for one and the same thing regardless of the fact that the awards are now hosted by someone different.
This was in response to the fact that nomination was based on work released between 2015 to 2017, which is the selection criteria for the awards.


Nominated


In spite of this the gospel singer and her management felt that being nominated in same category of newcomer for three years in a row was not ideal for the artist.
The letter which is in the possession of the Entertainment Desk reads as such: “We hereby wish to withdraw Nothando Hlophe from the above mentioned categories for the following reason: The same nominations have been made for the same above mentioned categories for three years running. We therefore feel it will serve the industry more to have her withdraw from these categories,” the letter reads.


Speaking about the letter addressed to them Melusi ‘Zox’ Dlamini, who is coordinating the event acknowledged that they received the letter and responded to the artist by informing  her that her fans were the ones who had nominated her for these categories and as such MTN SWAMA organisers could not accept her withdrawal from the awards as coupled with fans’ votes and the discretion of the judges based on the eligibility criteria, they felt the gospel artist fit the New Comer of The Year and Song of The Year categories, despite that these were categories she had been nominated in other awards ceremonies since the year 2015.


The Song of The Year nomination of ‘Khulul’ugcobo raised eyebrows with the gospel singer as well as this was a song she released nearly three years ago.

Comments (0 posted):

Post your comment comment

Please enter the code you see in the image: