It seems many Nigerian stars were deliberately absent from the 13th Headies award . Many of them trooped to StarboyFest, to spend less than 10 minutes on stage- Tiwa, Don Jazzy, Naira Marley, Burnaboy, Maleek Berry, Reekado banks and Maleek Berry
Many others found other convenient excuses to be away from the award show; Kizz Daniel was also in London for Pak N’go listening party which has already happened three days ago. Yemi Alade is promoting her album in Kenya and Ethiopia. It would seem they basically ignored the awards
Other artist including Sheyi shay, Dija, Perruzzi, Mayorkun, Mr Prince Korede Bello and a host of others very much around did not attend the event, it was more like a social media influencer award, graced mostly by Djs, radio personalities, upcoming artists and BBN house mates past and present who even got a front row seat in the absence of all the music big wigs
For many of our global superstars- the appeal of international awards like MTV EMA is beginning to effect their appetite for local awards-
Var check; If Burnaboy & Tiwa were nominated for an MTV music awards or BET would they be in London with Wizkid?
Burna boy was very busy, right in the middle of his tour and also preparing his African Giant album,- but he found time to make a detour to visit LA and pick up his BET awards for best African act
International awards shows view African acts like second class celebrities that should be grateful for the platform- at some point BET was giving out the best African awards backstage, yet many of them show up fully prepared with their team of photographers, PR, stylist and the rest .
The Headies organizers has contributed to messing up their own event
Wizkid had fixed his date earlier since 5th of June while headies fixed theirs in early September.
The headies team failed to play a crucial role in bringing all the stake holders together.
Another issue with the Headies is that it seems to only nominate popular artists’
Rude-boy Okoye had some of the best songs of the year including reason with me and chizoba, yet he did not make it into any of the categories.
Yemi Alade just released a great new album grossing over 1 million global streams and a Grammy consideration- she was not even nominated for album of the year.
Kizz Daniel, Olamide and Naira Marley with notable releases within the entry year was left out of the awards
It seems they gave out the awards to those who were present
Falz won – rap album, album of the year and rap single – not that he did not deserve it, but Kizz Daniel should have won album of the year
Teni won Best Recording of the Year -Uyo Meyo; Best Pop Single -Case; Best R&B Single -Uyo Meyo and Best Vocal Performance (Female)
In conclusion Headies is dealing with so many issues
- It has indeed lost its Midas touch, from the days when A-list stars like D’banj and basket mouth hosted the show. the visuals and sound are poor- Ayo Animashuan has clearly not grown.
- They are also dealing with celebrities and fans who feel cheated by the awards and may chose to boycott
- But most importantly, there is a global movement among Nigeria artist, no one wants to be local- a global award is deemed more prestigious
What ever the issues, Headies is our own. – the industry can kill it or grow it, its up to us
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