ALTHOUGH some might undermine their clout, the fact remains that when it comes to the local entertainment scene, teenagers are a group to be courted as much as the working class.
So, when last Saturday the 2011 Buzz Teeniez Awards got underway at the Lugogo Hockey Grounds, all stakeholders of the local showbiz industry had to fidget at the edges of their seats.
Almost all local artistes turned up to throw some weight around.
They did not just turn up, but had to put out their best swagg.
They drove into Lugogo in their best cars, dressed in the most flattering attire and walked to their best marches.
At the core business end of the day, rapper Navio continued the meteoric rise in stature he has enjoyed over the last two years, garnering five awards on the day and among those five, the heaviest one on the line — the Artiste of the Year accolade.
The man, who recently became a continental heavyweight when he signed on to the One8 project alongside superstar R. Kelly and other African stars, was also voted Male Artiste of the Year, Best Hip-hop artiste, while his song Nawuliranga won the hip-hop song of the year.
He also won the award for Teens’ inspiration of the year (beating competitors like Vison Group CEO, Robert Kabushenga and Bbale Francis).
Hip-hop continued to shine as the Female Artiste of the Year Award also went to a rapper — new girl on-the-block Keko. She edged out her seniors like Cindy and Irene Namubiru.
Keko also won the award for Best New Artiste, while hip-hop the Best Group went to Baboon Forest Entertainment.
Apparently, the only awards that were not won by hip-hop artistes were those that directly sought to reward other genres other than hip-hop.
To that effect, Coco Finger and Aziz Azion walked off with the Dancehall Artiste of the Year and R&B Artiste of the Year awards respectively.
Lokomotive, the all-star song, which in addition to Radio and Weasel, features several artistes like Raba Daba and and GNL Zamba, won the Song of the Year award. It beat competition from Iryn’s Begombeko, Goodlyfe’s Taxi Money and Vampino’s Kwekunyakunya remix.
The awards also recognised showbiz players who are not musicians at the end of the day.
It included an award for best TV personality which was won by DJ Bush Baby.
Stars compete for teens’ attention at Buzz Awards
