Moroccan music industry has kicked off its first edition of the Meditel Morocco Music Awards today! It is the first music awards show in Morocco and I’ve got the opportunity to be in the first ceremony to report the event on my own way as a blogger. I’ll probably publicly post the only (not that perfect though!) english article about it…

Anyway, I’ve received my invitation a day earlier after getting a confirmation a week ago. The show takes place in Megarama Casablanca a cinema on the coast of the city. It is scheduled for 8pm. I got there on time for the show, curious to see how this ceremony would go and write an article about a cultural event taking place in my city. Straight after the show, I’m ready to write… so this is my report!

UPDATE: A video of the main performances of the night added after the jump!

As stated on my invitation the show starts at 8pm but it really started at 9.30pm after 1h30min waiting for some stars to arrive. From this long delay we could feel a lack of a strict organisation. The show kicked off then at 9.30pm with an opening performance from H-Kayne a rap band based in Meknes. Miz was the host of the ceremony. The first award of the show has been given to Hayat Boukhriss from the category Traditional Music.

This has been followed by a great live performance from Hayat El Idrissi and Jamal Nouamane, one of my favourite part of the show an amazing live and awesome voices. It is the occasion to mention that the rest of the artists did not perform live but just playback! So I have much more respect for those two artists.

Quickly after, Masta Flow picked up his award from Don Bigg in category Rap and then culinary tv shows superstar Choumicha presented the category of Modern Music an important category that night as all nominees are successful beyond borders of Morocco. Without suspense, Choumicha revealed the winner’s name: Asmaa Lamnawar.

After a medley by Studio 2M candidates, the other important category with its nominees is announced Pop Music. This successful genre all over the world has its place in Moroccan music with some artists and a large public. The winner is Ahmad Sultan who also won at the previous MTV Europe Music Awards for Best Artist in North Africa and Middle East.

After this award, I felt like the ceremony became a little bit boring. Performers kept singing playback which left the audience disappointed! I’ve also noticed that any of the nominees performed and since I’m in the critics paragraph now I would add that the audience fashion taste doesn’t fit the standards of a ceremony of that type. Most people dress up very casual leaving the glitter and sparkle for the stars only. This is something to work on for the next edition, set up a dress code!

Few performances followed and 3 awards are to be given… in summary, Ribab Fusion won for the genre Rock/Fusion, Rachid Lmrini picked up an award for Chaabi Music and lastly an award for Younes B a DJ representing Electro Music. Congratulations to all the winners!

This night was a celebration of Moroccan music diversity and an honour to artists work. It is a first step in Moroccan music industry giving good impressions and ambitions that next shows will get bigger as music gets better.

VIDEO: Main performances of the night available in HD[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBZ5dVO9q5M&feature=youtu.be]

This was my night at the Meditel Morocco Music Awards in Casablanca, stay tuned, I will soon be In another City Near You! 🙂

Thanks for reading!

Hello, I'm Omar. I travel the world one city at a time. To get travel adventures delivered straight to your inbox, join my newsletter.

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