The 3rd Backing Vocalists and Session Musicians (BVSM) Awards will once again at the Soweto Theatre in Jabulani, on 15 March 2020.
The awards that take place every two years first launched in 2015 and had a second showing in 2017 . A fraction of musicians to be commemorated this year are from the period between 1996 and 2000.
A brainchild of Yvonne Chaka Chaka, South Africa’s most loved and veteran musician and humanitarian, these accolades with a difference which could not be hosted last year due to unforeseen challenges brings backing vocalists and session musicians who for long have been cast in the shadows of the stage, never seen nor acknowledged.
Chaka Chaka maintains that these musicians are essential to the cog that runs the music making machinery. Their contribution to the ecosystem of entertainment is invaluable.
The local music scene was bustling with a new found energy, just two years after the watershed 1994 elections, the first democratic and non-racial in South Africa. Some of the most popular sounds and influences of that time included kwaito, house, Afrikaans pop and Afro-pop.
The BVSM are awards with a difference. The winners walk away with a R5 000 cash prize and in
addition they have R20 000 deposited in an endowment policy that they can only cash in no less than an five years.
This is to stem the tide against the popular fate of ‘he/she died penniless’ headlines that often accompany the deaths of local musicians. The endowment goes some way to creating
generational wealth that the artist can bequeath his children or beneficiaries.
This makes the BVSM Awards a project with a caring heart and an eye on the future.A panel of industry experts, media personalities and veteran musicians gathered on Thursday 17
January 2020 to sift through the nominees and make a final selection of the nominees that will be revealed next month.
Chaka Chaka couldn’t contain her excitement: ‘I’m truly delighted that the BVSM Awards are back this year. It’s a project close to my heart because it’s rooting for the underdog and often the marginalised in the music industry. Much is said and done for and about frontline acts, but there is so much wisdom and value that we enjoy from the so called people behind the scenes.
I look forward to 15 March 2020 where we will bring forth names that have been overlooked, forgotten and ignored yet they were so instrumental in the making of the soundtracks of that time. We are thankful to our generous sponsors, Department of Arts and Culture, Sampra, Nandos and the TFG
Group. My team and I will deliver a memorable show fitting for these legends of music.
