‘The Rockstars’ Announce The Most Influential Global African Personalities 2020 Nominees

‘The Rockstars’ nominations 2020 are in following a Pan African announcement tour seeing several African countries each reveal a set or part of the nominees for this year’s historic 1^st ever African influencer awards.

Among ‘The Rockstars’ 2020 nominees, Maître Gims, who’s from the Democratic Republic of Congo and France, received the most nominations with 16, including nominations in the two big categories of the major overall global African ‘Rockstar’ category, the ‘StarBoy’ category in addition to nominations in categories ‘FacebookStar’, ‘Fandom’, ‘LiveStar’, ‘RapStar’, ‘Smashit’, ‘TwiiterStar’, ‘WorldStar’, ‘YouTubeStar’ and an unprecedented 6 nominations for the ‘Blockbuster’ category for videos achieving between over 200 million and 450 million views each to date, on his official YouTube channel.

Nigerian superstar Wizkid received 15 nods, including nominations in the big categories of overall global African ‘Rockstar’, ‘Starboy’ in addition to ‘AfrobeatStar’, ‘Fandom’, ‘Gamechanger’, ‘InstaStar’, ‘LiveStar’, ‘MegaMusicVideo’, ‘TwitterStar’, ‘WorldStar’, ‘YouTubeStar’ and a double nomination for both ‘Blockbuster’ and ‘Smashit’ categories.

Fellow Nigerian superstars Davido and Burna Boy each received 14 nominations. Davido received nominations in the big categories of overall global African ‘Rockstar’, ‘Starboy’ in addition to ‘AfrobeatStar’, ‘FacebookStar’, ‘Fandom’, ‘InstaStar’, ‘MegaMusicVideo’ and ‘Smashit’ for his global hit ‘Blow My Mind’ with Chris Brown, ‘StarCouple’, ‘TwitterStar’ and ‘YouTubeStar’ and a triple nomination in the ‘Blockbuster’ category for his megahits ‘Fall’, ‘If’ and ‘FIA’. Burna Boy also from Nigeria, who’s had a huge year to date rocketing him to global success, nods in the categories ‘Rockstar’, ‘StarBoy’, ‘AfrobeatStar’, ‘AfroPopStar’, ‘Blockbuster’, ‘Fandom’, ‘LiveStar’, ‘ReggaeStar’, ‘StarCouple’ and double nods in ‘Blockbuster’ for all-time hits with ‘Ye’ and ‘On The Low’, in addition to double nods in both ‘MegaMusicVideo’ and ‘Smashit’ categories with his recent mega-hits ‘Be Honest’ with Jorja Smith and ‘Own It’ with Stormzy and Ed Sheeran.

Completing the double-digit nominations list is South African sensation Sho Madjozi, and leading lady of the nominations who’s just had a massive year and shows no signs of slowing down momentum anytime soon after her global viral smash hit ‘John Cena’, followed short on their heels with 13 nods in the categories including ‘Rockstar’, ‘StarGirl’, ‘AfroPopStar’, ‘Fandom’, ‘GqomStar’, ‘HipHopStar’, ‘LiveStar’, ‘MegaMusicVideo’, ‘RapStar’, ‘Smashit’, ‘RisingStar’, ‘WorldStar’ and ‘YouTubeStar’.

Tanzania’s Diamond Platnumz landed 9 nominations;  South Africa’s Bonang Matheba and Pearl Thusi alongside Tanzania’s Vanessa Mdee landed 8 nods each; Danai Gurira (USA / Zimbabwe), Lupita Nyong’o (Kenya / USA), Mohamed Salah (Egypt) and Trevor Noah (South Africa / USA) with 7 nods each. Black Coffee and Nasty C and the new Miss Universe Zozibini Tunzi from South Africa alongside Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya), Millard Ayo (Tanzania), Yemi Alade (Nigeria) each received 6 nominations. Coming in at 5 nominees each sees Alikiba (Tanzania), Aya Nakamura (Mali), Djimon Hounsou (Benin / USA), Ihssane Benalluch (Morocco), Jidenna (Nigeria / USA), Matias Damasio (Angola), Sadio Mane (Senegal), Tekno (Nigeria), Tiffany Haddish (USA / Eritrea), Tiwa Savage (Nigeria), Vinka (Uganda) go head to head. 4 nods each went to Coumba Gawlo (Senegal), Djodje (Cape Verde), Halima Aden (Kenya / Somalia), Liya Kebede (Ethiopia), Naira Marley (Nigeria), Ommy Dimpoz (Tanzania) and Perola (Angola).

Triple nominations went to Senegal’s Akon, South Africa’s Cassper Nyovest, Charlize Theron (also from the USA), DJ Fresh, DJ Maphoriza, Elon Musk  (also from the USA and Canada), Sean Watson and Shekhinah, Ngeria’s Funke Akindele Bello, Mr Eazi (also from Ghana) and Tony O. Elumelu, Fally Ipupa from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Jay-Z and Swizz Beatz (also from Eritrea), Kanya King from the United Kingdom, from South Sudan Nikki Thot (also from Australia) and Nyma Tang, Sarkodie from Ghana, Tim Ekandjo from Namibia, Kenya’s Wanuri Kahiu, Tanzania’s Wema Sepetu and rounding the 3-time nominees off is Zari from Uganda. Another 354 personalities received between 1 and 2 nods each to complete the list of nominees for 2020.

Nigeria leads the pack as country with the most personalities nominated across individual categories in total of 159 nods, South Africa follows with 146, Tanzania 62, Kenya 47, Angola 37, Uganda 32, Senegal 27, Ghana 25, Democratic Republic of Congo 22, Namibia 18, Mali 14, Eritrea 13, Zimbabwe 11, Egypt 9, Cape Verde 8, Benin 7, Morocco 6, Somalia 6, Ethiopia 6, Cote d’Ivoire 5, Rwanda 3 and Cameroon 3 with the rest of the nominee pool spread across the other African countries of origin.

‘The Rockstars’ aka The Rockstar Awards is the 1st Africa Continental awards in history for recognizing the most powerful, highly acclaimed and most influential personalities from the African continent, and personalities from across the rest of the world, with influence on and relevant to audiences on the African continent. ‘The Rockstars’ recognize the most influential personalities of African origin on the planet across music, entertainment, gaming, film, content, social, media, sport, environment and conservation, sustainable fashion, beauty, arts, business and innovation.

Global voting opens to the public online from Monday, 17^th February at www.TheRockstarAwards.com.

‘The Rockstars’ will broadcast and livestream LIVE in September 2020 and will reach audiences in more than 180 countries and territories across the African continent and worldwide. You can see the full Rockstars’ nominations 2020 announcement list below, and online at www.TheRockstarAwards.com and www.RockstarTelevision.com and on the official social media channels @The.Rockstar.Awards and @RockstarTelevision on Instagram, @RockstarTelevision and @RockstarTelevision on Facebook, @RockstarTelevision and @RockstarTelevision on Twitter and @RockstarTelevision and @RockstarTelevision on TikTok.