EXCLUSIVE (KENYA): Mdundo Awards 2018 Winners

East Africa's music downloading service, Mdundo, partnered with ONGEA! 2018 to award the most downloaded Kenyan music of 2017. It was a great night for Nyashinski, Khaligraph, Mercy Masika, Timmy T Dat, The Kansoul and Willy Paul who clinched awards on their various nominated categories.

The long awaited fourth edition of  Mdundo Awards happened on Saturday evening, 17th February hosted by musician and MC Jemedari and KTN’s Aisha Wanjiku. The award ceremony took place on the third day of the ONGEA! East African Summit at the Sarit Centre. It was a star studded event with Kenya’s most celebrated artists; Nyashinski, Mercy Masika, Khaligraph, Gilad, Alice Kamande among others in attendance.

It was a triumphant night for Willy Paul who bagged two awards; the most downloaded single overall and the most downloaded Gospel single award. Gospel artist Mercy Masika took home the most downloaded female single award while the Malaika hit-maker Nyashinski won the most downloaded male artist single award. The Kansoul won the group of the year award with their most downloaded hit-song, Bablas.

“This is the most beautiful award I’ve seen with Mdundo. I’m grateful that in Kenya both Gospel and Secular music are in the same category altogether…,” Mercy Masika said on receiving her award.

The winners were selected based on the number of downloads on the Mdundo platform and this year's awards had a total of 35 nominees in the 7 categories.

Mdundo's CEO, Martin Nielsen said, “The Mdundo Awards 2018 exceeded all of our expectations. The support from the fans and the nominees was overwhelming and we are very thankful for everyone who was present at the event. A big congratulations from Mdundo to all the nominees and winners - keep up the good work, we are all enjoying the music very much.”

Here’s the full list of all the winners: