Polite Mosko crowned Northern Artist of the Year in the MTN-Sponsored 2022 Northern Uganda Music Awards

Gulu, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Polite Mosko was crowned the Northern Uganda Artist of the Year in the MTN-sponsored 2022 Northern Uganda Music Awards (NUMA) held Sunday evening at Pece Stadium in Gulu City.

As the biggest supporter of Uganda’s music, MTN Uganda supported the NUMA awards based on its vision of creating shared value across the communities within which it operates.

The NUMA awards are the Northern region’s oldest and biggest annual musical event that aims at promoting and rewarding both established and upcoming musicians, inspiring change through the power of their voice.

The 2022 NUMA awards ceremony was a night of a unique lineup of artists and actors ranging from traditional dance performances, urban music genres like Hiphop, Reggae, Gospel and Dance Hall music.

At the end of the night, 25 artistes walked away with awards and prizes including a record deal with Uganda’s top producers for the top 4 categories courtesy of MTN Uganda.

The four winners who secured music recording deals include; Polite Mosko, the overall artist of the year, Eddy Wizzy, male artist of the year, Jeneth Prischa, female artist of the year and Mixola as the new artist of the year categories.

The award ceremony was attended by NRM General Secretary, Richard Todwong, Gulu City Woman MP, Betty Aol Ocan, and the Acholi Paramount Chief Rwot David Onen Acana II among others.

Juma Muhammed Okot, the NUMA founder hailed MTN for supporting the music talent in Northern Uganda. “The NUMA event remains the oldest and best musical event in the region. We are indeed happy to have MTN walk this journey with us by supporting us with not only organizing the awards but also offering recording deals to our stars. We look forward to working with MTN to further nurture and promote the immense music talent in Northern Uganda,” Okot said.

Commenting about the awards, Aggrey Byaruhanga, the MTN Uganda Northern Region Business Manager said that MTN has over the years strongly supported Ugandan music artistes and commits to continue doing the same as a way of rewarding and nurturing music talent in the country.

“On behalf of MTN Uganda, we congratulate all the winners of the NUMA. MTN is happy to celebrate the great music and entertainment talent in our country. As promised, the top 4 winners will record their next songs with the country’s top producers of their choice, courtesy of MTN,” Byaruhanga said.

According to Patrick Ssebadduka, the NUMA awards coordinator, the registration started on Thursday 08th December 2022 with artists picking registration forms from different radio stations in Northern Uganda as well as online registration. The Nominees were selected through regular radio calling programs across all the radio stations in the region and confirmed by the committee in charge of the final selection.

This was followed by a multi-layered judging process by renowned music critics who go on to assess the impact, technical quality, uniqueness and style of these selected songs in respective categories.