This year's All Africa Music Awards have nine singers from Portuguese-speaking African countries (PALOP) nominated in the best artist categories.

This year's "Africa Grammys", the All Africa Music Awards Festival, broke the record for the number of entries. In total there were 8,880 entries from 50 African countries, plus 10 countries from the United States of America and Europe.

Four singers from PALOP countries are competing for the title of best female artist: Anna Joyce, Edmazia Mayembe, and Pérola represent Angola, and Soraia Ramos represents Cape Verde.

In the category of best male artist from PALOP are: C4 Pedro and Rui Orlando for Angola; Djodje and Nelson Freitas for Cape Verde; and the brother duo, Calema, for São Tomé and Príncipe.

As for the category of best African artist in the diaspora, Nelson Freitas is nominated for the connection between Cape Verde and Portugal.

According to the festival organization's data, of the 8,880 registered entries for the 2021 festival, West Africa leads with 30.4%; followed by East Africa (28.8%), Southern Africa (22.9%), Central Africa (12.3%), North Africa (4.9%), and international artists (0.7%).

The nominations are spread across 40 regional and continental award categories, which will be announced next month.