Morocco Savvy

More lively than ever, the Moroccan pop scene takes to the nation’s most prestigious stage for their first ever music awards.

There’s more to Moroccan music than the usual fix of gnaoua, melhun and andalusi. Hip-hop, fusion, rock, even death metal are making waves in a vibrant music scene. Now, for the first time, they’ll celebrate their own music awards.

The Mghrib Music Awards are the brainchild of the Moroccan music portal NextLine, and the idea has quickly attracted support. It’s sponsored by Casablanca’s Boulevard pop festival and by HitRadio, Morocco’s first commercial pop music radio station that finally took to the airwaves last summer.

There are nominations for Best Album, Best Song, Best Video, Best Hip Hop Act, Best Rock/Metal Act and Best Fusion Act. To qualify, an artist must have released an album in 2006 or have won one of the major music competitions that are organized in Morocco.

The awards will be presented on February 24 at the Mohamed V Theater in Rabat, a pretty prestigious location for the wild young men of Moroccan music.

Update: The awards ceremony has been moved to March 31. The organization has chosen the new date “to avoid confusion” with the Motorala Music Awards. The Motorola awards are being presented at the Casablanca Mégarama on February 22, just two days before the Mghrib awards were scheduled.

• Listen to the nominees for the Mghrib Music Awards and cast your vote

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 30th, 2007 at 10:42 pm and is filed under Events. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.