By Darlington Gatsi

PREPARATIONS for Zimbabwe Musical Awards (ZIMA) are in motion with this year’s edition of the premium event being held on June 3 at 7 Arts theatre Harare, organizers have revealed.

The awards ceremony, which is being sponsored by the country’s largest cement manufacturer, PPC Zimbabwe, will be held in a hybrid format under the theme ‘Re-Imagining The Industry’.

ZIMA executive Fungai ‘Kush’ Zvirawa said this year’s theme dovetails with the organisation’s aspiration of bringing an end to fragmentation in the music sector.

“As we embrace the best forms of entertainment via digital media, we are in dire danger of ignoring our own proud heritage. We now need to re-imagine the best of both worlds and to draw on the rich heritage, wisdom and experience that is so closely bound to the very industry we hope to transform,” said Zvirawa.

“ZIMA23 will help us acknowledge the advantages of drawing our rich music heritage into the ongoing re-imagining process. At the very least, our musical heritage needs to be tapped into now. It is time,” he said.

Taking a leaf from last year’s edition, this year’s event will be preceded by seminars to equip the musical knowledge of artists.

ZIMA also announced a new team to spearhead this year’s event with Zvirawa and Marshall Shonhai being roped in.

The new team will have a mountain to climb in cleansing the ZIMA awards whose standards have gone down in recent years.

“This year we have twenty-five (25) categories and will be taking submissions for twenty-four (24) of those with one being a special award, The Lifetime Achievement Award which does not require any submissions.

“We are pleased to announce that we have retained PPC Zimbabwe as the title sponsor and this year’s event will be known as the PPCZIMA Awards in short #PPCZIMA23 which will also be the hashtag we will be using across all social media platforms, #PPCZIMA23. We have cemented this partnership over the years through our convergence on strong commitment and determination in our respective trades and value systems,” said Zvirawa.