Nigeria’s Dhortune emerges winner of 2020 AfriMusic Song Contest

The past two weeks have been nail-biting and exhilarating – 30 finalists from across the African continent, have been battling it out for the best song in Africa, during the 2020 edition of the AfriMusic Song Contest.

The much-awaited moment to announce which songwriter takes the coveted title has arrived… AND the winner of the 2020 AfriMusic Song Contest is… Dhortune ThatOndoBoy representing Nigeria, who led the contest in the finals with an astounding 315,314 public votes.

A fast-rising Nigerian artist, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and a performing and recording artist, Dhortune is sure to have an impact on music fans from all over the world.

His musical style is a fusion of contemporary Afro-Highlife with a modern tune, his songs also promotes the Ondo-Yoruba African culture.

He has written songs for several artists in the music industry and is currently working on his debut album scheduled to be released this year.

This year’s competition was the hardest one yet, with entries from 29 African countries and 113 songs competing in the National Selections, voting for the best song, was indeed a challenge, with so much talent that Africa had to offer.

“This year saw the two top contenders, both representing Nigeria. Dhortune lead with the public votes, while Zinny lead with the judge’s votes.

Following in similar format to that of the Eurovision Song Contest voting rules, should finalists combined scores result in a tie for the title, the finalist with the highest number of public votes, will be declared the winner.

Following the tightest and closest results during the National Selections, the decision across the AfriMusic executive board was unanimous, there can only be one winner and the same rules for the finals, as with the Eurovision Song contest should apply.

This resulted in Zinny taking second place, with quite a big difference in public votes received, to that of Dhortune.

We have seen an amazing global reach, where votes from countries such
as, Brazil, Mexico, America, Canada, Australia, Russia, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Portugal, Spain, Italy, Sweden, France and many more, were received in supporting their favourite AfriMusic contestant.

Dhortune was a well deserving contestant from the start, as we saw how his fans and public got behind him in support. His ability to market himself alongside all the promotion AfriMusic were doing, was quite remarkable.

This shows the power of social media and digital communication today.” Said Suzie Vicente, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of the AfriMusic Song Contest.

“The love of this project grows with each year. To see our slogan “Connecting Africa through Song” come to life, is truly a remarkable thing to witness.

The beauty of this project, is that the whole AfriMusic team, has a sense of getting to know these contestants on a one to one basis, as the team witnesses their musical journeys progress, even far beyond the announcement of the winner.

To see how fellow contestants support each other, connect and at times even collaborate, is the true purpose of this platform, amongst taking their music internationally.

This year has been no exception, despite the global restraints the world is currently facing, with the Covid-19 pandemic. Sadly, Eurovision 2020 has been cancelled, along other major events around the world, so plans for AfriMusic in 2020 has been halted.

We have a few other announcements to make in the coming weeks, despite the global lockdown and we look forward to sharing them with our fans and partners soon.” Said Michelle Fernandes, Co-Founder and Co-CEO of the AfriMusic Song Contest.

This year’s final results were so close, and for the first time in its history the contest had numerous tiebacks in both selection phases.

The winner of the AfriMusic Song Contest is selected by a positional voting process. Each contestant receives two sets of points, one set from the judges panel and another from the public voting.

Points are combined and divided 50/50 between judges and public votes. The song with the highest number of combined points wins. In the case of tie-backs, the song receiving the highest points from the public vote is the winner.

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