After a three-year hiatus, Rwandan annual music awards, Salax Awards, are returning with some changes, organisers revealed.

"Salax Awards are back and this time round, there are some better changes. For instance; the awarding ceremonies don’t usually give money to the artists, but in this edition, the artists will get a big percentage of the money based on their votes. The categories are also not as many as they used to be,” Bertrand Iradukunda, the Salax Awards spokesperson told The New Times.

Now in its eighth edition, Ahupa, the organisers are talking to their sponsors to see that in every category they get to choose who they will award. The organisers will put the sponsor and the artist in the loop and link them for some future collaborations.

"In the contracts, we are making it clear to our sponsors that based on the category they will be awarding in, we will link them with the winning artist in that specific category and they will have some discussions about the future projects they can do together. Be it being their brand ambassador or anything according to their agreements. Ahupa will therefore not ask for any percentage of the artist and the company’s collaborations” said Iradukunda.

The New Times learnt that the total number of categories will be 10, the nominees will be revealed in early February and so the voting will start then. Therefore, by March 31, the awards will be given to the winners. The winners will be decided based on 60% of votes from fans, 20% from the media and 20% from the Salax Awards judges.

These awards were previously organised by the Ikirezi Group before shifting to Ahupa with a five-year renewable contract. That is when Ahupa made it first in 2019. Unfortunately due to Covid-19 it went on hold until this year when organisers announced its return.