 So right about now we want to talk about awards and the most upcoming like really really upcoming ETA awards and with me I have the CEO of ETA awards and they are looking forward to the third edition of the awards so we'll be getting to know what ETA awards is because I have also seen kilamjona semawi wot for them on ETA awards so I also want to get to know what ETA awards is about so ETA welkom to the show thank you so much yes so can you introduce yourself to the people watching back at home okay to the viewers at home my name is Edward Wilton's diary I stay in machaikos county and partly in Nairobi I'm from busia county and I am the executive director of the CEO ETA awards Kenya yeah all right oh so it's ETA awards yes it's ETA you see it depends with where you went to school yeah some of us call it ETA some people call it ETA others call it ETA so it's just ETA all right so what does ETA stand for it's a rebrand actually we used to call ourselves ETA awards that was back then this is an idea that was born back then in 2019 2017 around there from the initiative the former governor machaikos an event that we used to call Talanta festival at the people's park I remember so many artists used to come from Nairobi and other parts of Kenya just going to to the people's park every Sunday to perform so every Sunday yes every Sunday we used to have a very big sound and of course we have an amphitheater in machaikos so people used to come from different counties people traveling from all the way from kisumu mombasa and other counties just coming perform on Sundays and then from there we used to ask ourselves the question of yes we've been doing this for quite some time but now what next because this is just more of a platform where artists just come to showcase whatever they have but now after showcasing so that is when we thought of bringing up an award that probably was going to appreciate and do add these efforts and that is how we thought of now having our first award which was in 2021 we held it in Kitangela and it only had four counties that was machaikos, makweni, kitui and kajadu county and then from their last year out of the public demand uh so I think the first year worked so well so so many people were requesting why don't you stretch to all the counties in Kenya and we were like you know you need to go step by step yeah always the answer to and then you find yourself national and we also we wanted to make a very strong foundation before we get to the national level and so we did 12 counties last year that is the entire eastern and part of rift valley which was all the masai counties and then now as we were laying our plans for the next five years uh one of the main things that we want to achieve by then is that by our fifth year which is in 2025 we are supposed to be taking over the east african market yeah and that is why now we thought that we lay a kenyan foundation this year next year we do kenya then now 2025 we go to east africa so uh in a nutshell that is what eight awards how it started so we actually because of going national we decided to rebrand to not call ourselves eastern because people are raising questions why is why you're going national and all that so we actually did a rebranding event uh on fifth of last month and then that is the same day we were unveiling the nominees okay and now we we decided to come up with everything differently even this logo is totally different from the logo we heard last year and the other year so it's a total rebrand so that we may be able to accommodate all the kenyans okay so um what gap were you trying to bridge when you thought of you know eta awards like what what what did you see that you needed to feel it i think uh generally our industry the music industry is i wouldn't say dead but it's somehow equal equal to you see there were back years back then that we used to have bingo awards bingo was covering all both gospel and secular and then we had groover awards which was so huge and i remember it was attracting artists even on the east african market uh kenyans uh now if i talk about the the gospel uh uh industry an artist was releasing a song in january targeting a nomination for grove and that was spurring the the industry growth so much as in msania li kwa na fukiria to manzee nikiwa nominated for grove as an artist so every other artist was looking forward to either being nominated as a new artist the gospel artist of the year i'm at the male or female artist of the year maybe uh the quality of their production was top notch kwa msania li kwa na enda studuakijwa manzee i'm wishing this song can be nominated as the audio of the year the video of the year the producers were working so hard to be nominated just as the audio producer i'm at the tv director of the year but after iii groovy kaisha isha bingo ii kaisha industry karudichini so was like there's nothing the artists are looking up to msiana amukana enda studuoh he just want to do whatever he wants to do but there's nothing he's working towards so that is why we thought that we could be able to bridge this gap and at least bring something that artists can long for artists can work towards nadya msania ki amuka kijue niya mimi amuakin the uh this hard because i want some recognition because again these recognitions are the things that make artists getting known and those men come from these recognitions that is why you will see people like in adiamon and all that they pay their flights they go pay for accommodation in foreign countries just to secure themselves these are collaborations so that they get nominated on maybe be a bt amakina free awards because it takes you to another level it takes you to a specific levels uh somewhere you are not let's talk about the kenyan market look at the people like kina bahati bahati became bahati we know today as a result of groovy yeah ile ile temi niya lwin groovy i think it was three times or four times consecutively everybody now was talking about bahati we lipo in case and we lipo all the same case the likes of akina gloria the same case but now today where are we as an industry if you are you are asked today who lives in manzee uh e-industria kenya you are a tv host in indahapi you don't i don't know whether you have an answer but personally i don't because there's nothing artists are working towards so that is the gap we needed to bridge to party yetu asani a platform where they can look at i want to get to this level i want to get this recognition so that different brands can identify who i am yeah all right so um planning um such an event has its own challenges and its own like ups and downs so maybe tell us what are some of the challenges you have experienced you know um trying to plan for the third edition of eta awards uh bearing in mind that it's a national event uh it takes a lot uh of course resource wiser and uh i'm talking about monetary and monetary resources uh it's so it's such a tedious process it involves you traveling to different counties and have not just me because i have a team it's a team if you get our website to our website www. eta awards.co.k you will get more information about our team but as in this team you want to uh at some point uh we throw up uh we peleke maybe cost amo ipeleke nyanza amo ipeleke western these are resources uh we did cost me immediate were the other day and i was looking at myself and i was like why if i knew what it all costs i wouldn't have gotten myself into this as we are speaking part of our team is in Nakuru right now for the road shows we are partnering with kukakuna to do the road shows so the road shows started yesterday so they are ongoing this morning when i was leaving my place i was organizing the team that is covering uh the the road shows in the eastern region and in masai counties we have a track that is going that direction so again you realize uh the resources that are involved it's a lot too much yeah but uh mimi kitwe ni many many fanyan kafilam it's it's a big task worth it it's it's worth it and it's also a very big task that you get to mingon with so many creatives and that i think for me it's very fulfilling because you get to understand the needs of different artists you know seated where i'm seated maybe in my house or in my office i may not be able to understand these artists sometimes we complain about artists too much but we don't have time to understand yeah itemeni una unendaga region flan and you are seated with these artists they are telling you the challenges they go through they are telling you what they've gone through to be where they are that is now when you understand that surely this industry needs a facelift to some extent and so those are things we keep learning so it has been alaning journey for some of us that were had never had a chance to mingon with so many artists na pia it places your brand somewhere sometimes you go to different places and uh you don't need to introduce yourself me sometimes na na pita maalu na skia Edward then i'm like okay how do you i had to look one amali flan we were with you in Nakuru we were in you within busia and i was like wow so yeah it's it's a good experience yeah all right so what are your expectations for you know ita awards the third the third edition wow maybe let me let me first start by when we were opening nominations uh actually the first year we only had around 11 000 submissions for the four counties 11 11 000 the second year we had 32 000 submissions that was last year for the 12 counties and now this year we had 58 000 submissions i was shocked at 11 000 i don't know what to say at 58 000 we had 58 000 submissions and uh well i looked at all these numbers and i was talking to uh tuva sometime back and i was like hey bro he's part of the team by extension yeah so i was just telling him how do you even choose from 58 000 to 400 nominees you sound shocked so i was like wow yes we had to pay for a team of experts yeah a hotel for one good week to sit down and evaluate all the submissions so that now they help us get the 400 submissions so it has been a process and of course we're expecting some serious competition and one thing i always say about ita is most of the times when i always personally i expect what i win they've never won as in it's always nili na kuchanganyanga akili kwa you're like flania me kwa kwa i kategori flanina flanina flanina and so everybody is watching for this person but wherever this other person will come from to clinch this win you don't even know you get it so uh i'm expecting some serious competition and of course out there to the people who are the nominees and their fans don't be relaxed you see danie jumse maybe when superstar you see also maybe something that i may have forgotten to mention is that ita is a regional award yes so we don't focus on the Nairobi artists only other awards that have been there were focusing on wasani when you may make it na i for us we are focusing on the county artists is it you get so those are the artists we are targeting so you realize that we've got also the regional artists like we are nyanza artists of the year so na pata awasani wa nyanza kuna ulem se mune everybody's thinking wind will atakwa wina kwa zwanam juo kwa kwa zwanam juo but kuna awasani we again they are equally doing well but probably they don't have the social influence that everyone expects but umse wuki niya kwa ground na kuna ability ya kumobilize votes i think also something we may need to talk about someday is this ability as uh as an artist how are you able to mobilize resources towards yourself towards your brand because again nadyo asanuengiwa naliyanga manzes dui mziki ailipi a bcd and all that but you forget that as an artist ume eko somewhere where now you have a point that you should be able to mobilize resources for yourself you are supposed to come up with something that can spur this particular brand that you're having it's not just about the music we are doing unadiyo kuimba mi nusema as a talent developer kuimba kuimba only contributes to 15 percent yeah whatever you do with this talent is what matters that is why sometimes when you listen nadyo fulani and i'm a hit now nobody knows him i'm a talent but mziki akema it's being played all over it's about mobilization how can you be able to mobilize people to support your content how are you able to talk communication also how are you able to talk to a presenter mziki aemansi you get but kuna wele msani yameka tu pali an expect you mean you big name i must kill akitum kujie the is work that needs to be done there's so much work after this i think actually the most work that needs to be done is after the studio yes you know i have gone to the studio i have recorded i have my video out it is that work that matters alone your talent in a contribute to 15 percent After that 85 percent, this 85 percent, one distribution, you see there's a question, you guys women are most of the times, where can we find your music answers in a kuanda YouTube, how much do you get paid on YouTube, that is a question probably we need to answer at some point as to because we need to watch our subscriptions, so at the end of the day you may not be able to be paid by YouTube, so where else can you be able to gather resources for your brand, there are other platforms you can be able to distribute your music now a days all the platforms music is going digital, it's actually digital not going, so that means distribution is on digital platforms, how many digital platforms do you know as an artist, both locally and internationally, these are things the artists need to understand then once you've been able to bring up all these platforms and making sure that your team has worked on having your music on these platforms, now there's an aspect of marketing that comes on board maybe one thing I always say it's a turn off for an artist to share his music on WhatsApp group, how many of us even open these songs on WhatsApp group, how many times do you open? broadcast list once you've been able to have an icon of broadcast like this guy, he needs to be serious it's not even personal, it's not personal, I know you've sent it to many others so it doesn't have a personal touch it's not having that personal touch, but Pia, forget about personal touch, atokini to me at WhatsApp direct I just feel kunavene aoko serious how many emails do you have as an artist, these are different DJs, both on TV, radio and club DJs and other platform social entities do you have their email address, that is where now the marketing aspect comes in so from marketing that is where now you can start earning because your music is on platforms, you have marketed it, your music is being played after that aspect of being played, you have a few interviews now to introduce yourself and introduce your brand that is where now people start associating themselves with your brand and from there that is where now what I end our stream because we are planning to do it 24-5-4 so let me stream, let me see if it will be on any other platform that is why when you start streaming you may not know him that much but he will be able to stream as much as he wants and now when you start streaming, you see that is how the difference between making money and making a name now when you start doing it, you will be able to do it in a big time now when you start doing it, you will be able to get it and at the end of the day when you start making bank statements you will see he is being paid it is a very good example for our Mount Kenia artists these people you may not know them but they must have the art of music distribution you go to skiza they are the highest paid artists and that is something you will see when you start to make money Ako apana ii, ako na very big name, amewin mawads, bato kumoliza bank accounti kwa kwa inaridadze, manze maziru tu. Ya, so we need to work. All right, so one last question before we wind up. After the event, what does Ita do to kib, you know, or rather to kib, to make sure that, you know, the people that have won, all the amazing artists, the amazing personalities that have won, you know, you're keeping, you're staying connected with them and just making sure that their platform is growing bigger. I think as far as the awards that are within is concerned, I think Ata Awards is the only award that follows up on artists to see their growth. I have two examples. This 28th, we are going to celebrate our male artist we now are 2019, now the 2021, the first male artist. He's called Daniel Onomakawa. He won as a male artist from Ata Awards, we were able to work with him and from that he got a doctorate degree, recognition. As we are speaking, he's been conferred as a bishop on 28th. So we are going to celebrate two wins out of Kutembe and Aikos, like he doctorate, actually I was involved even on signing the documents, recommending him, he got an international recognition. That came from Ata. Another example is DJ Queen, I don't know whether you know her, but she's a big name right now. We can go to social status, social sites, say she has almost half a million other about followers and this was as a result of Ata Award. We met this girl back then in her village, a place called Biseel in Kajadu, nobody knew about this girl. But as we are speaking, she has what we call DJ Queen Foundation as a result of winning Ata DJ of the Year. She has her own DJ Academy as a result of winning Ata Awards. And normally what we do with the winners is we help them organize homecoming events where we go and celebrate with them and introduce them to the community and endorse them and say, this one has won as this particular category winner in this year's award. So to Makudyaku, we introduce for this particular community, we introduce him or her to the county officials and the department in charge and we let them work together so that they may be able to empower the communities even more. Maybe just to wind up, we are doing this year's event at Nairobi Cinema. Wow, Nairobi Cinema on 2nd of September. As we are speaking, people are voting. But on 2nd of September, as from 3pm, we shall be unveiling the winners for the Ata Awards this year. And of course, so many shocking news this year. Yes. Right, we also have one of our TV presenters in one of our shows that has been nominated for Ata Awards 2023. So yeah, congratulations, Filingin and Bounce Nation and all the best. All right, so a parting shot as we wind up to the artist watching you because I'm very, very certain that we have so many artists watching us right now because of the nature of our show. And you can give them a parting shot, a word of advice and yeah, we want Ata. One thing I'll say is that you need to work as an artist. Don't just sit down, don't just go to the studio and release songs and you feel you're done. You need to put in more effort. And of course, let us always work with God's timing. Don't push too hard. Is on the way to zyofanya or zyofanya asewanakwa na some emotional disorders. Just work smart, just make sure you deliver as per the expectation on your own end and any other film will just fall in place. As long as you're doing everything right, you are linking up to the right people, you will definitely get there. Do not push yourself too hard in the story of flania, me hit, so I must also hit you to the hands of Naiei. Kilam say you konataimiaki, but make sure you connect yourself with the right people. I think as far as music is concerned, it's all about connection. No someone who knows someone who knows someone. And at the end of the day, your music will get to someone who knows someone who knows someone. All right, so thank you so much, Edward, for joining us. Thank you as well. And all the best at Eta Awards 2023 and may it become as big as you want it to be. We are looking forward to partnering with you guys in the future. And we are inviting you guys, actually in our later invitation, doko se kukudya, nesema tuli kwa nawe kwa shona wuli lenga kukau. So I'm extending our invitation even to the DJ and the producer, Karibuni Sana at Eta Awards this year's edition, 2nd September at the Nairobi Cinema. Thank you so much. Now at least I have a gown ready. So I have somewhere to go in. Thank you so much for the invitation as well. And all the best once again. And congratulations to all the nominees out there that have been nominated for Eta Awards 2023 and may the best person win. Yeah, so right about now, we are about to get into request hour, but before we do that, we will definitely have our MC come through and introduce himself. And we get to know what are our expectations for the request hour. And we are taking a short break. Don't you go anywhere. We'll be back with more of the Eta Kids.