Nigerian R&B duo P-Square were named Africa’s Best Artist at the pan-African Kora music awards hosted recently in Burkina Faso’s capital Ouagadougou, a prize that includes $1 million USD.
P-Square aka “Paul and Peter” beat Senegalese group Black Diamond, Angola’s Paul G and homegrown Amety Meria to scoop the top award Sunday, which is worth one million dollars (742,000 euros). Akon was offered $150k USD and a private jet to the award ceremony, and still, he did not attend the awards, to the dismay of music fans tuning in from all over Africa.
The award show, founded in 1996, is Africa’s largest, broadcast across the continent to over 100 television channels and 22 countries. 2010 marked the first time the show was hosted outside of South Africa. In the running alongside the twin brother duo P-Square for best African music were Senegalese’s Black Diamond, Angola’s Paul G and Burkina Faso’s Amety Meria.
Other winners included lifetime achievement awards for Cape Verde’s Cesaria Evora and Gabon’s Pierre Akendengue, as well as Ghana’s Becca for best African prospect, Senegal’s Chronicle 2h for best reggae artist, and Alicia Keys for “best African-American artist of the diaspora. p square wins 1 million dollars
