The 7th edition of the African Entertainment Awards USA (AEAUSA) is set to hold on the 18th of December 2021 and will be hosted by Nigerian TV personality Nancy Isime and Kenya’s top comedian Eric Omondi.

The African Entertainment Awards USA (AEAUSA) was established by Dominic Tamin in 2015 with the mission to use entertainment as a vehicle to support, celebrate, promote, and uplift the achievements of all Africans and Africans in Diaspora through music, acting, sports, businesses, non-profits, education, and other entertainment forms.
Since its over 6-year inception, AEAUSA has recorded over 185 award winners in varying categories cutting across music, comedy, film, fashion, sports etc. Winners have included Sauti Sol, Sinach, Master KG, Burnaboy, Shatta Wale, Bukky Wright, Eddy Kenzo, Gyptian, Yemi Alade, Diamond Platnumz, Sarkodie and many more.
In this exclusive interview with Fab.ng, Dominic Tamin the founder and president of the African Entertainment Awards USA (AEAUSA) told us about his vision for Africa and Africans, his driving force in the last 6 years, lessons learnt and what to look forward to in this years award show.

Fab.ng First and foremost, I would like to say big congratulations on the forthcoming 7^th African Entertainment Awards USA (AEAUSA). It’s been over 6 years of celebrating, promoting and uplifting Africans through Music, acting and other entertainments forms. Kindly describe the past 6 years and what has been your driving force.

Dominic Tamin: My children! One word – Children. I want to leave something behind for them and I see that Africa is so divided and through entertainment we can unite Africans globally. I see this as a way to build generational wealth to be left for our kids. Also the fact that I want to see Africa as one, the unity of Africa is very important to me and that’s what motivates me every day to go to places I have never been before. As you can see, I am presently in Morocco seeing different market, different people and different places yet we are one Africa. So I see this as a platform because of my kids, I want a better life for them and I know that I will be introducing them to the roots because Africa has rich history.

Fab.ng: As the President of African Entertainment Awards USA, you are also the C.E.O of Empakcorp, you are a Tax Expert, a Mathematician, Philanthropist etc. It is clear that you wear many hats, kindly describe how you are able to juggle all these roles

Dominic Tamin: Well when you have passion for what you do, it doesn’t become juggling, it just becomes a part of you. That how I see all the things I do, it is a part of me. First from being a person who respects individuals to be able to just love what I do, and it makes it easier. I know it is not easy but I love it. Becoming a mathematician takes patience, you can’t accomplish everything all at once, it takes years and years of experience. As a teacher I taught for about 14 years and we have done the awards show and it is in its 7^th year now without a major sponsor. The driving force is basically when I saw the vision, I knew what I had to do, I knew it would be very tough and I knew in other to accomplish that vision, there are things I had to do differently because most of the funding for the award show is from me. Juggling all these things together allows me to raise funds to do what I am doing right now. The award show is a money guzzler, it requires a lot of money. It is a passion for seeing Africa move forward, seeing children become better, not only my children but the children of Africans. That’s how I see this awards show and that how I am able to juggle all these things.

Fab.ng: AEAUSA has recorded over a 100 award winners in different categories cutting across music, comedy, film, fashion, sports etc. Are there specific criteria you look out for in these categories? If yes, what are they?

Dominic Tamin: We look based on your talent, your drive, what you are currently doing. For example an artiste who doesn’t currently have any social media presence or YouTube presence cannot be nominated. However, because I understand that some artiste don’t have the ability to have all these things, we have a category called upcoming and local. These are for artiste who we know have the potential but who have limited mileage or leverage so we include them in the award show to give them that boost in their career. The criteria is that you just have to be doing what you are doing. For instance, Diamond Platnumz, what is he currently doing? He is visible, he has a number of hits, many YouTube followers etc. We look at all those things to determine what category to put you. We can’t put someone who is upcoming and someone like Diamond Platnumz in the same category.

Fab.ng: Despite the pandemic last year, you and your team managed to put together the first ever AEAUSA virtual awards show. How did that go and what should we look forward to in this year’s virtual award show?

Dominic Tamin: Every year will get better and better. Last year was very tough because everything was shutdown and there was nothing we could do. But we knew we couldn’t go on without putting the award show together. Did you get a chance to watch it?

Fab.ng: Yes I did, great show!

Dominic Tamin: It was awesome. You could see the diversity of the award show. It wasn’t just based on one particular people, it was showing the beauty of Africa from the north, east, south and west and that’s what African entertainment is all about. We are so isolated as Africans that someone who is from Nigeria thinks differently from someone who is from Morocco for instance. We are so diverse, so the goal for the award show is changing the mindset of Africans that we all can work together. So that is why last year we had to put it together and it was awesome. We had great viewership, quality performances. This year is even going to be better, we are getting better and better every year. One day we will be on a major TV network showing the awards show. It would be one of the biggest awards show ever produced in the world in terms of our numbers. We have Nancy Isime hosting, we have Eric Omondi. He is a comedian from east Africa. We have a performance from Morocco, from Nigeria – Skales, a performance from Guinea, Cameroon. Our award show is not about the biggest artiste, it is about the people. We are not against big artiste but we are for the people. We are building a platform from the grassroot. Others start building with the big artiste, ours is different we start from the grassroot and move from there. What brings us joy is the connection of the people who are able to come in to watch the award show and be a part of it. The legacy we are building will not last in the heart of the artiste, it would last in the heart of the common person on the street who can say lets push this award.

Fab.ng: As a Non-Profit Organization what are the critical lessons you have learnt being at the helm of affairs. Also, have you made mistakes? Tell us about these mistakes and the lessons learnt.

Dominic Tamin: One of the challenges is not having a sponsor, not having backing. I believe that I am just a vessel, God brought me as a vessel to carry this on. Right now its just myself who has been pushing the vessel in terms of the monetary aspect. That is the challenge that we face right now. The beauty of it is I am here in Morocco and I am talking to you. The show is connecting us, connecting different people together. These are all the positives, to see how you are able to move certain culture forward, that is the beauty of it. The challenge we face is to raise money to continue doing the award show. The beauty of it is that we are connecting people from different tribes together and I am hoping that we continue to market the show. We value people, the people who put the show together are more valuable to us than the artiste themselves.