The Tanzania Gospel Music Promoters (TGMP) is preparing for a grand festival aimed at awarding best gospel artists for the year 2010.

Revealing the event to the media in Dar es Salaam yesterday, the company's director, Harris Kapiga said the show which has been jointly coordinated with the 'Malaria No More' initiative will be conducted on February 27 this year at the Diamond Jublee Hall in the city.

Kapiga said this year's show would be different from the past ones, saying that the unleashing of the awards would go hand-in-glove with introduction of the artists to Christian leaders and their brethren who would ask them to help in the national anti-malaria initiative.

He said already the competition forms have already been circulated to aspiring artists. He named the centres from which the forms have been sent for artists to collect as Arusha, Iringa, Mbeya, Shinyanga, Mwanza, Kilimanjaro, Singida Morogoro na Dar es Salaam.

"We would like as many artists as possible to participate in the show. That is why we have sent the forms to various zonal centres to facilitate easy collection by the aspiring artists,” he said.

He named the awards to be garnered as 'Best Song of the Year Award', 'Best Song Composer of the Year Award', ' Best Artist of the Year Award' (both male and female), 'Best Artists Group Award'.

He revealed other awards as ' Best Gospel Songs Artist Award' ' Best Young Artist,' 'Best Choir using Organ Award,' and ‘Non-Instrumental Best Choir Award.’

There would also be 'Best Gospel Song Video of the Year Award' and 'Best Gospel Song Video Producer of the Year Award, according to the director.

Kapiga said the entrance fee for the show would be 5,000/- for the ordinary seats while 10,000 would be for special seats.

He said the process of voting for the aspirants would start on January 29 and climax on February 12 this year.