Gospel Stars Reflect on Ngoma Victories

Last weekend, Namibia’;s gospel royalty donned their finest red carpet-worthy garments and descended upon the Nampower Convention Centre for the Namibian Gospel Music Association (NGMA)’;s annual Ngoma Namibia Gospel Music Awards.

Some of the winners on the night included Lady Dyna, who walked away with the best album of the year award for ‘;Set Apart’;; best gospel rap went to Effy, while the best music video award went to Maranatha.

The biggest winners on the night were no doubt D-Naff and Manda Gabriel who won best male and female gospel artists of the year.

A clearly excited D-Naff told The Weekender that the Ngoma awards are a welcome addition to the Namibian music scene as they encourage healthy competition amongst gospel musicians.

“The industry is growing and there are more platforms so competition is very serious, even amongst gospel artists. It’;s time that we took gospel music seriously and not only sing hallelujah for the sake of it but rather improve our skills and deliver top quality music,” he said.

Gabriel continued her recent winning streak in the gospel music arena after scooping the best artist of the year at the first-ever Mpumakoloni International Gospel Music Awards that took place in South Africa last month.

“It’;s an honour to first get an international and then a local accolade. It’;s a big step for me and I can only thank God for all of this and for bringing me this far,” she said. Asked if she’;s running out of space for her accumulating trophies, she chuckled before responding “yes, I definitely need to start thinking of making special room in my house for the trophies, and it also means I have to start working harder”.

Maranatha said that the quality of her video was worth the award. “I really campaigned hard for the video because of the effort that was put into it as well as the powerful message that it carries. Even if I hadn’;t won, all glory still goes to God who made all of this possible,” she said. The Ngoma Namibia Gospel Music Awards took place for the second time this year with Ndilimeke Nambinga from NGMA saying that the event went well this time around.

“It was truly a red carpet event and it was much better organised. We were disappointed that NBC wasn’;t there and with the competition from all the events that took place that weekend, we didn’;t get as many people as we wanted to attend, but we were still happy with the attendance,” she said.

She however noted that the most important thing was that after going on a hiatus because of a lack of funds last year, the event returned and honoured gospel music stars in 11 categories.

The next edition is set to be even bigger with more categories to be added on. “We want to celebrate gospel music in its full extent so we’;ll have categories to include, for example choirs which are very big in gospel,” she said.

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