By Our Reporter
MTN Uganda awarded the artistes with the most downloaded CallerTunez in 2021 across different music genres in a colorful event held at the Kampala Serena Hotel on Wednesday.
The 2021 MTN CallerTunez awards were a culmination of the six-month-long award journey during which different artists with the most downloaded ring back tune and lucky customers who downloaded and used the tunes on their phones were rewarded with cash prizes on a monthly basis since July last year.
The artist with the most downloaded CallerTunez in a month from July to December 2021 was rewarded with UGX2million while the artiste in the Rising star category would take home UGX1million. Pallaso, Spice Diana, Liam voice, Martha Mukisa, Pia Pounds among others, are some of the artists that were rewarded in the previous months.
The 2021 MTN CallerTunez categories comprised of; Kadongo Kamu (Band), Afro Beat (Pop), Hip Hop (Lugaflow), R&B, religious and dance hall (raga & reggae).
The 2021 MTN CallerTunez winners for each category include; Chosen Becky’s Nesiimye, for the Kadongo Kamu (Band) Category, Pallaso’s Mallamu for the Afrobeat/Afropop category, Fik Fameika’s Lock won in the Hip-Hop/Lugaflow category.
Liam Voice’s Omwooyo took the mantle for the RnB category while Martha Mukisa’s Sango held the top position under Ragga/Dancehall. Under the religious category, Miracle Music Ministry’s ‘You have been faithful to me’ was the most downloaded gospel callerTune for the year 2021. Each of the winners walked away with 2.5Million shillings.
Liam Voice also scooped a second award for the Best rising star as chosen by the 8,858 people who voted for him. Spice Diana was voted as the best female artiste under the people’s choice awards having garnered 33,461 votes. Pallaso also bagged a second award after beating other male artistes to get named the best male artiste by the 25,672 people who voted for him. They each walked away with 3Million shillings.
Lorna Otieno MTN Uganda’s Senior Manager for Consumer Segments said the MTN CRBT awards seek to recognize the effort and work created by the local entertainment industry throughout 2021.
“We are glad to have successfully achieved our goal of honoring the talented artistes and content creators who have continuously spiced our lives with great music and messages that we enjoy as our caller ring back tunes. This is our way of saying Thank you. We hope to cultivate more digitization, appreciation, and consumption of our local content through recognizing and rewarding the artists’ efforts,” Otieno said.
The CallerTunez service is an offering of MTN where customers download their favorite songs or audio skits as ring back tunes that callers listen to while waiting for the customer to answer the phone.