2025 Malawi entertainment in summary
By Temwa Mhone
After two years of running, the players in the entertainment industry ended 2025 by ruing the decision made by the Malawi Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) to cancel the Entertainers of the Year Awards.
These are the most decorated accolades, with several categories and their subcategories, providing Malawians an opportunity to vote for the best entertainers of a given year in the areas of music, sports, social media, poetry, media personality, drama and film, among others.
Mwakisulu: Died in November last year (Photo Credit: Internet)
MBC, through its spokesperson, Chisomo Mwamadi, stated that they had been occupied with managing overwhelming tasks in the past months, making it difficult to come up with a glamorous event to amaze the audience, nominees, and partners.
The country’s film industry was also hit with a shocking blow for losing a renowned actor and film producer, Ashukile Mwakisulu, who died on 3 November after a long battle with cancer.
Despite those and a few other disappointments, Malawians have been entertained by this developing industry.
From being given top-notch packages of art through movies, albums and extended-playlists to hit singles, revellers’ and the general public’s thirst for soul-soothing or danceable tunes was quenched thoroughly.
The Tumaini Festival at Dzaleka featured different traditional dances (Photo Credit: MBC)
This has also been the year that TikTok made religious choir songs go viral and enjoy airplay regardless of the occasion, except for funerals.
In churches, bridal showers, weddings and bars, the Takulandirani song by Masintha Chitsitsimutso Choir has been the most played song for the better part of the year. This song was released one or two years ago for a gathering of churches under the CCAP Nkhoma Synod in the Capital City, Lilongwe.
It resurfaced this year, following a TikTok trend. The development forced the choir to shoot its video four months ago, and it has amassed 1.4 million views on YouTube. It was voted the 2025 Best Gospel Song at the Maso Awards.
The same scenario happened on the Tisadziphe song by Saint Agnes Choir 1 of Msamba Catholic Parish in Area 24, Lilongwe. It is a hit song with over 1.4 million views on YouTube.
Malawians also patronised major music festivals, probably in the last quarter of the year, October and early November. Music lovers stormed Cape Maclear, Mangochi, to attend the UMP Festival. People drank and danced under the stars in Nkhotakota during the Lake of Stars Arts Festival, and wrapped it up with the Tumaini Festival at Dzaleka Refugee Camp, in Dowa, where harmony flourished among different nationalities. Musicians, actors and fashion designers, among other players in the industry, also had a fair share of excitement as some of them had sold-out album launches and shows, including being honoured and decorated by Maso Awards and UMP Awards for their various outstanding projects in the year.
