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Willy Paul, Bahati miss out of Groove Awards nominations


Top gospel musicians Willy Paul and Bahati missed out in the list of Groove Awards nominees announced on Tuesday night.

Organisers of the awards, in a strongly worded announcement, said that they had only nominated gospel artistes “who have been living the Christian way.”

Last year, Bahati bagged four awards, three of which were for his hit song Barua. Willy Paul walked away empty handed after being outshone by Bahati.

However since the last edition of the awards,  the two musicians have been in the news for all the wrong reasons. Willy Paul has been embroiled in media scandals involving women, drunkenness and abandoned children.

Bahati, on the other hand , made a cheap shot claim against fellow gospel musician Daddy Owen, whom he accused of swindling Denno off his proceeds from their collaboration ‘Mbona‘. He also at one point announced an early retirement from music citing threats to his life.

There were 26 categories in this year’s nominations.

Daddy Owen  leads the pack with six nominations for Male Artist of the Year, Collabo of the Year, Song of the Year, Album of the Year, Afro Pop Song of the Year and Video of the Year.

JFam and Recapp came second with four nominations each. Jfam has been nominated for Male Artist of the Year, Ragga/Reggae Song of the Year and Collabo of the Year.

Recapp received nods for Group of the Year, Hip Hop song of the Year, Collabo of the Year and Video of the Year.

Following closely were Evelyn Wanjiru and Eunice Njeri each with nominations in three categories. Both songstresses will face off for the Female Artist of the Year and Worship Song of the Year awards.

Evelyn Wanjiru has also been nominated for the Collabo of the Year award, while Eunice Njeri is in the running for Album of the Year.

New contenders for the Artist/Group of the Year category include Bonz Mzalendo, Cliché, Mash Mwana and P31, Kenya’s newest all-female gospel trio that has also been nominated for Hip Hop Song of the Year.

Eric Smith and Laura Karwirwa are also in the running for Artist/Group of the Year, with each receiving nods in Worship Song of the Year and Video of the Year categories respectively.

Public voting is now open and will run until May 31, 2016. Fans can vote by dialing *811# and following the prompts. Winners will be announced on June 1, 2016.