Nigeria's Audu Maikori Wins IYMEY award

Nigeria's Audu Maikori Wins IYMEY award

The British Council

Audu Maikori, CEO of Chocolate City, has emerged the Nigerian winner of the British Council's International Young Music Entrepreneur (IYMEY) of the Year award 2007.

The British Council presents the International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year (IYMEY) each year to champion and celebrate the importance of creative entrepreneurs working in the field of music.

Nigeria: Audu Maikori Wins IYMEY award

Daily Trust (Abuja)

16 June 2007
Posted to the web 18 June 2007

Nasiru L. Abubakar

Audu Maikori, CEO of Chocolate City, has emerged the Nigerian winner of the British Council's International Young Music Entrepreneur (IYMEY) of the Year award 2007.

Audu, 32, is a law graduate from the University of Jos and his company, Chocolate City is an entertainment company that administers a record label, artist management, entertainment facility management, recording studio, events management and promotion as well as general consultancy work for clients. The company has won considerable success in the past two years with artists Jeremiah Gyang and Djinee (who won best artist at the Nigerian Music Awards in 2006).

The award attracted applications from across Nigeria from young people (25-35 years of age) working in different areas of music enterprise ranging from music promotion and production to artiste management and music journalism. Audu was one of 6 finalists for the award who made presentations and were interviewed by a panel of seasoned music industry practitioners. The judges were on the look out for a winner who must have shown his/her ability and innovative approach to the promotion of music in Nigeria, particularly in a commercial context, one who had the ability to demonstrate the potential to be a future leader of the music sector through their character, drive and ability, one who had an international outlook, and one who was keen to come to the UK to find out about the UK music sector, and to enjoy this shared experience with the rest of their fellow finalists.

The panel of judges was made up of Tunde Kuboye from Jazz 38, veteran jazz artist and promoter, Kenny Ogungbe, CEO of Kennis Music, music mogul and broadcaster; Olisa Adibuah of Cool FM/Storm Productions, Emem Ema, last year's winner of IYMEY and Denise Waddingham, Assistant Director British Council Lagos and British Council Nigeria's Head of Arts.

As the winner for Nigeria, Audu will contend with 9 other finalists from Egypt, India, Indonesia, Latvia, Lithuania, Malaysia, Phillipines, Poland and Tanzania for the global IYMEY award. He will also participate in a ten-day tour of the UK music industry, which includes visits, meetings, and gigs in London and Manchester, the Glastonbury Festival and the London Calling trade exhibition, among other events.

Final selection of the worldwide winner will be through a presentation and interview session with an elite panel of UK music industry professionals.

International Young Music Entrepreneur of the Year (IYMEY) is an award designed by the British Council to champion and celebrate the notion of creative leadership; specifically the need to identify and nurture future leaders of the music industry.

The aim is to help sustain the development of the next generation of leaders within the creative sector while building awareness of the UK as a centre of creative thinking and entrepreneurship; a vital nexus of international networking and a place where musicians can always do business.