It was revealed on Wednesday, that Trevor Noah would be the host for this year’s MAMAs.

Now the nominees have been announced.

Wizkid, Cassper Nyovest, AKA and Sauti Sol lead the pack in the first round of nominations for the forthcoming MTV Africa Music Awards Johannesburg 2016 (MAMA), with an impressive nine nominations between them.

The second round of nominations, comprising 7 additional award categories, including Artist of the Year, Best Female, Listener’s Choice, Best Breakthrough, Best Francophone, Song of the Year in partnership with Google, and Video of the Year, will be revealed at the Hard Rock Café, Lagos, Nigeria during Road to MAMA – Lagos 2016 (2 October 2016).  

No nominations will be revealed for the MTV Base Reimagined award, and MAMA Legend.

Voting for your favourite: 

Voting for MAMA 2016 opens at 23:00 on Wednesday 21 September at www.mtvbase.com and affiliated Twitter, Facebook and Instagram accounts. Additionally, fans can vote for Best Group and Best International Act from 21 September by simply searching for “MTV MAMA” on Google, with each Google account allowed 5 votes per category per day.  Google voting for Best Breakthrough and Song of the Year will open on 2 October.  Voting in all categories closes at 23.59 CAT on 19 October 2016.

MAMA 2016 NOMINATIONS (PART 1)

Best Male

AKA (South Africa)
Black Coffee (South Africa)
Diamond (Tanzania)
Patoranking (Nigeria)
Wizkid (Nigeria)

Best Live
Cassper Nyovest (South Africa)
Eddy Kenzo (Uganda)
Flavour (Nigeria)
Mafikizolo (South Africa)
Stonebwoy (Ghana)

Best Group
Mi Casa (South Africa)
Navy Kenzo (Tanzania)
R2bees (Ghana)
Sauti Sol (Kenya)
Toofan (Togo)

Best Collaboration in partnership with Absolut

AKA feat. Burna Boy, Khuli Chana & Yanga – “Baddest” (South Africa/Nigeria)
DJ Maphorisa feat. Wizkid & DJ Bucks – “Soweto Baby” ((South Africa/Nigeria)
Nasty C feat. Davido, Cassper – “Juice Back Remix” (Nigeria/South Africa)
Patoranking feat. Sarkodie – “No Kissing” (Nigeria/Ghana)
Sauti Sol feat. Alikiba – “Unconditionally Bae” (Kenya/Tanzania)

Best Hip Hop in association with MTN

Emtee (South Africa)
Kiff No Beat (Ivory Coast)
Olamide (Nigeria)
Riky Rick (South Africa)
Ycee (Nigeria)

Best Pop/Alternative
Desmond & The Tutus (South Africa)
LCNVL (South Africa)
Shekinah (South Africa) / Kyle Deutsch (South Africa)
Timo ODV (South Africa)
Tresor (DRC)

Best Lusophone
C4 Pedro (Angola)
NGA (Angola)
Lizha James (Mozambique)
Nelson Freitas (Netherlands/Cape Verde)
Preto Show (Angola)

Personality of the Year in association with DStv

Caster Semenya (South Africa)
Linda Ikeji (Nigeria)
Pearl Thusi (South Africa)
Pierre Emerick Aubameyang (Gabon)
Wizkid (Nigeria)

Best International
Adele (UK)
Beyoncé (USA)
Drake (Canada)
Future (USA)
Rihanna (Barbados)