Freshlyground scoops MTV music award - Johannesburg (AND) South African Afro pop group Freshlyground has won the African category of the MTV European Music awards. The awards ceremony was held last night in Copenhagen in Denmark. [African news dimension entertainment]

Is Freshlyground the next big African music group after 2Face Idibia? Maybe. Their recent African award win at the MTV Europe awards (?) may just be the precursor. Their style of music is different from the mainstream pop and seems to fuse genres from all over the continent and beyond. They won this award pitted against Nigeria's P-Square, Kenya's Nameless, Tanzania's Juma Nature or Angola's Anselmo Ralph. They deserve to win it nonetheless.

It's also beautiful to see the diversity in Freshlyground and the way the band members complement each other. Zolani Mahola is a great singer and I hope she stays with the band for long - we'll love to have Freshlyground making great music together. They have excellent videos on Youtube too.

There have been many great South African groups/bands. Most of them have been representing the Kwaito genre, but their sound may be more than that. Lebo Mathosa, may she rest in peace, was an original member of Boomshaka, a very popular group that gave us a great rendition of South Africa's famous Nkosi Sikelel' i Afrika. She moved on to have a stellar solo career. Malaika is another group that has managed to transcend the Southern African borders, songs like Destiny are well-known. Other famous groups include Bongo Maffin and Mafikiolo, etc. I am sure Freshlyground is not the last major entry and would continue to fly the banner of 'new' African music on the world stage.

Concerning this award and MTVBase Africa, is MTV trying to appeal to young English speakers in Africa? We hardly see much love for the Francophone Africa's music on MTV Africa and they have been conspicuously missing from honours. I hope there is not a growing divide amongst Anglophone and Francophone Africa when it comes to music. If a particular song from Liberia should have international success, I do not see why it should not succeed first, in Ivory Coast, and vice versa. African music promoters must make the effort to unite the continent's culture and music irrespective of language and those from various countries must collaborate.

I know you must be asking me about Museke - yes, this is an open invitation for collaborators.

Watch the Doo be doo video