Dakar, August 26, 2023. The icon of African music Youssou Ndour has endorsed the artistic sponsorship and the presidency of the official Jury of the first edition of the Jayli awards.

During an audience granted on Saturday August 26 to the initiators of the Jayli awards at his office in the Almadies district of Dakar, the african music star undertook to support this African initiative to promote excellence in music. Note that the famous and prolix Cape Verdean music producer Manu Lima has also recently joined the official jury in charge of evaluating the 80 artistic works of 8 categories – The best of the category ”Song of the year” to be designated exclusively by the public – unveiled on August 28 after the preliminary work of the Pre-nomination Jury.

Youssou NDour, the king of Mbalax has received numerous awards for his music including the prestigious Grammy Awards in the category best world music album and several gold records. He was made an honorary doctor from Yale University in the United States in 2011. In May 2013, he won the Polar Music Prize and was the winner of the Praemium Imperiale, the Japanese equivalent of the Nobel Prize for the Arts in September 2017. Minister-Counsellor to Senegalese President Macky Sall after holding the positions of Minister of Culture and Tourism and Minister of Tourism and Leisure respectively between April 2012 and September 2013, Youssou Ndour is undeniably a success symbol and a great ambassador of African culture around the world.

Ismaël Savané, Youssou NDour and Cheick Yvhane, Almadies, Dakar. August 26, 2023.

It is with great pleasure that the general commission of the Jayli awards welcomes one of the most illustrious artists in the world to chair the jury. The winners of the Jayli awards will be revealed on the evening of Friday, November 03 during a prestigious ceremony in the presence of Mrs. Dominique OUATTARA, First Lady of Côte d’Ivoire, godmother of the 2023 edition.

When registrations closed on August 15, 2023, approximately 750 applications for more than 20,000 visits to the www.jayliawards.com website were registered, evaluated and reclassified in the 9 categories below:

• Best Ivorian Female Artist
• Best Ivorian Male Artist
• Best Artist/Group of Eastern Africa
• Best Artist/Group of Northern Africa
• Best Artist/Group of Central Africa
• Best Artist/Group of Southern Africa
• Best Artist/Group of Western Africa
• The song of the year
• The Artist of the year

After evaluation by the official Jury, the final list of the 5 nominees per category will be published on September 20, the date of the opening of the final votes for the period from September 20 to October 08, 2023 based on the principle of “One voter one vote”.

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