All The Winners At Our First Ever Rock Music Awards

We cannot say how grateful we are for the way things turned out on the 26th of October. For our very first Rock & Metal Music Awards, things went better than expected. We had a slew of more than entertaining performances from Kanyeki, Murfy’s fLaw, Straight Line Connection and Last Year’s Tragedy with no small . We had a great mix of music from Deejay Liquig aka Dj Gurlfriend. Our master of ceremony was the very talented and lovely miss Phyline Jean from Y254’s RockTour.

Our hosts Rue 104 Lounge & Restaurant were more than amiable, handling our patrons with courtesy and professionalism. The event was proudly sponsored by the Myuziq Network an online radio platform featuring regularly curated online radio stations of all genres and eras in one place, with more stations added all the time. Whether you like Rock, Pop, Urban Reggae or even EDM and then some, we have a station for you! Listen live or download any of our podcasts and listen whenever you like.

Best International Act

This award category was presented by our master of ceremony y254 Rock Tour’s Phyline Jean. Our panel of judges sought to nominate bands that have played shows here. This final shortlist consisted of the ones whose performances we considered most memorable.

The nominees in this category were as follows:

In Other Climes (France)
AYS (Germany)
Ferocious Dog (United Kingdom)
Stray From The Path (United States of America)
Stick To Your Guns (United States of America)

The winner is…

Stick To Your Guns (USA)

Best African Act

As one of the few outlets that focus on rock and metal music in Africa, we felt it would remiss if we didn’t recognise the efforts of our brothers and sisters from across the continent. This award category was presented by our co-founder and blog technician Abner Mbaka.

The nominees in this category were;

Ark’An (Togo)
Vale of Amonition (Uganda)
Zainab Sule (Nigeria)
Nobormide (Mozambique)
Overthrust (Botswana)

And the winner is…

Vale of Amonition (Uganda)

Best Music Video

This category was presented by Mildred Achochwho has been one of the most long serving ambassadors of rock music in Kenya, way before we even came onto the block. She has been active in the scene from the early 2000s when social media was limited to Yahoo Chat and MySpace. She has had the benefit of documenting and promoting bands through her ROFFEKE (pronounced “rafiki”) blog which is a meeting place for rock and film. She has featured a number of bands including Murfy’s fLaw , Simply Tomas and Rish.

The nominees for this category were:

Sons of Robots by Rash
Abso-bloomin-lootly by Murfy’s fLaw
Cheshire Grin by Powerslide
Rain Man by Parking Lot Grass
Leo ni Leo by Doveslimme

And the winner is…

Cheshire Grin by Powerslide

Best Live Performance

For this category, we were honoured to have one of the best live performers in the music industry a man by the name of Tetu Shani. He has performed in some of the biggest stages and is a much sought after artist. It was therefore quite fitting that he presented this award to the eventual winners.

The nominees for this category were;

20 More Days
Rash
Murfy’s fLaw
Irony Destroyed
ASIA

And the winner is…

Murfy’s fLaw

Best Metal Song

The presentation of this award category was done by none other than Shiv Mandavia. Shiv is an accomplished filmmaker having shot and filmed Straight Line Connection’s music video for “Fight and Reconcile”. He was also behind the much loved Metal to Midnight Show on X fM and also played guitars for blackened death metal band Absence of Light.

For this category the nominees were as follows:

Last Year’s Tragedy for the song Mammoth
Irony Destroyed for the song Najiskia Kuua Tena
The Seeds of Datura for the song Pokea Uponyaji
Straight Line Connection for the song Fight & Reconcile
The Seeds of Datura for the song Unbound

And the winner is…

‘Last Year’s Tragedy receiving the award for ***Heavy and the Beast – Best Metal Song***

Last Year’s Tragedy for the song Mammoth

Best Rock Song

This award was presented by none other than Nick Ndeda. Nick is an actor having appeared both on Television, Theatre, Film and Music Videos. Nick Ndeda was also the immediate former radio host of 105.5 Xfm Saturday Morning countdown Weekly Top 30. Various of these nominees have appeared on that countdown. His appreciation of them is therefore unrivalled and it was such a pleasure hearing him give plaudits to each band uniquely as he read them out:

Rish for the song Habits lyrics
20 More Days for the song About the Money lyrics
Kanyeki for the song Ndigihota Gutariria
1000 Fahrenheit for the song Spider’s Hand lyrics
Rash for the song Nitachange lyrics

And the winner is…

Rash for the song Nitachange

Best Male Artist

This award category was presented by an ardent metal head Edna Omol who with her sister run a local merch store The Alien Webstore linked on the right-hand side of our home widget.

The Nominees for this category were as follows:

Simon Peter of 20 More Days
Sam Warui Mwangi of Rash
Rafael Sipalla
Lawrence Muchemi of Irony Destroyed
Martin Kanja of The Seeds of Datura

Best Female Artist

For this one, Nairobi’s punk rock outfit Crystal Axis gave out tributes to each of the nominees. They made light of the moment to the amusement of their audience and I cannot remember having laughed like that for a long time. Our honored nominees were:

Rish of Asia Band
Reema of Murfy’s fLaw
Wamvii of Doveslimme
Skylar Lorena Mwangi of Irony Destroyed

And the winner is…

Rish of Asia Band

Best Radio Presenter

For this category we had the pleasure of being heralded by one Judy Nabwire who presented the award to Kiss 100’s Nick Ndeda of the now-defunct 105.5X fm.

The nominees for this category were as follows:

Mao Mukuria of Indie Rock Feed (105.5 Xfm)
Kui Kabala of The Fuse
Taylor Murathe of The Fuse on Capital Fm
Italia Masiero of The Fuse on Capital Fm
Wanjira Longaueur of The Fuse on Capital Fm
Nick Ndeda of XBRKFST on 105.5 X fm
Fared Khimani of The Rude Awakening (105. Xfm) and Code Red (Capital Fm)

Heavy & The Beast Award for Consistency, Excellence & Perseverance

We had one final surprise category award which we awarded for consistency, excellence and perseverance. They were handed out to the following individuals

Mark Mwanyigah for his crucial contribution through providing sound at shows