At last, we have witnessed The 2012 Headies Awards night which has been rated by many Nigerians as one of the most dignified awards in Nigeria. Well, as far as I am concerned, there are only few of such awards in Nigeria that would attract the attention of almost all the big boys and star artistes in the African Entertainment industry. Many star artistes who were not in Nigeria before the event had to hurry to Lagos for another night of fun, style and networking. This year’s edition of The Headies Awards (the 6th edition) was hosted by Omawumi and MI. The colorful event was graced with amazing performances by Davido, Eva, Brymo, Dammy Krane, Timi Dakolo and EME All Stars.

This piece is an attempt to briefly review the result of the award panelists and examine some sensitive aspects of the organization of the award since it is one of the highly rated in the Nigerian entertainment industry. Besides, I expect that most of my suggestions in this review would be useful for progressive development in the industry and for the sake of the posterity.

Below is a review of each of The Headies 2012 Award categories:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR

The entries for this category were; Ice Prince’sEverybody Loves Ice Prince, P-Square’s The Invasion, Wizkid’s Superstar and Naeto C’s Super C Season. It is quite amazing why Invasion had to invade every other entry on the nomination list. If we are to judge by the number of hit tracks on each of the albums nominated in this category, we would need only Headies to tell us why Wizkid’s Superstar couldn’t have been the head. In the 5th edition of The Headies Award, we understood that Superstarwas not ripe enough to be the best album of the year since the album was launched some few months before the award. And if we are to judge by the year that the albums nominated for this category were released, then we should remember that Wizkid’s Superstar and P-square’s Invasion were both released shortly before the 5th edition of The Headies Award last year. So, what on earth could have been the yardstick for The Headies [/b]selection?

[b]ARTISTE OF THE YEAR

Really, I had expected that the likes of P-Square and D’Banj would have been rewarded for their uncommon contribution to the development of the Nigerian entertainment industry in this year. In some years back, it could be very difficult for one to imagine a Nigerian singing in collaboration with a reigning international artiste in France or USA. P-Square broke the jinx this year by doing a remix of Chop My Money (in Pidgin English) with Akon and Onyinye with the Yankee big boss, Rick Ross. D’banj also did some recordings with The Good Music (though many Nigerians complained about his passive roles in the recording). When Wizkid was declared the winner of this category, I must confess, I thought it was a big joke. How could he? On what basis?

SONG OF THE YEAR

No other song in year 2012 apart from D’baj’s Oliver Twist(the song that hit top 9 on UK iTtunes) deserves the award for this category. I think The Headies got it right here.

RECORDING OF THE YEAR

Among the four songs nominated in this category, I would say Brymo’s Ara is the only one recorded somewhere in the cloud nine. If truly you appreciate good musical production, I am sure you would agree with me that Brymo’s Ara is highly spiritual.

PRODUCER OF THE YEAR

Here, I’m sure The Headies got it twisted. Actually, I was contemplating between Cobham’[/b]s Stupid Song and [b]Jesse Jags’ E.L.I. If you are a keen lover of quality music production, you should know that a lot of creativity and skills were exerted into the production of Stupid Song (Very unique) and E.L.I.(originality is involved). Even, logically we should expect that the producer of the song that wins the Recording of the Year should be given exclusive preference in this category. This is one of the reasons why an artiste may receive up to ten awards in Grammy or other internationally reputed awards.

BEST MUSIC VIDEO DIRECTOR

Of all the entries in this category, I think Jude Okoye’s Chop My Money stands out. He deserves to be commended for his detailed interpretation of the song in the video. His concept is very dramatic.

BEST R ‘N’ B SINGER

May D might have attempted to try out with Rhythms and Blues but I would say he is still coming up. The fact that you sing one or two R ‘n’ B songs should not make you the best R ‘n’ B singer. Hey! There are some peeps whose calling in the musical industry is to sing only R ‘n’ B, no deviation. Some of them have been persistent in it over the years. So, if Award is truly a reward of relentless contribution and remarkable efforts, I see no reason why the likes of Wande Coal or Tiwa Savage shouldn’t have blazed this category. Headies, are you for real?

BEST POP SINGLE

Hmmm, this is tough! Whoever advised The Headies to include Iyanyan’s Kurukere among the nomination list must have done a good job. Kudos! I had predicted he would win even before the night of the award.

BEST R ‘N’ B/ POP ALBUM

I agree that P-Square’s Invasion has the highest number of hit R ‘n’ B tracks among other entries for this category. So, no comments.

BEST RAP SINGLE

This category is a big disappointment to me, but I would like to reserve my comments. Why? I am aware that some angels are interested in reading this part of the write up, so let there be silence.

BEST RAP ALBUM

Yes boss! Ice Prince noni!

LYRICIST ON THE ROLL

Next category please,…skip!

BEST COLLABO

Chop My Money remix by P-Square ft. Akon & May-D shouldn’t have made the nomination list for this category if The Headies knew it would be ignored for Orobo [/i]by Sound Sultan Ft. Excel & Flavour. P-Square deserves an apology for this.


BEST VOCAL PERFORMANCE (MALE)

I must confess, this is another tough one. It was very difficult for me to select the best of these three wonderful vocalists: Wande Coal ‘s [i]Private trips, Banky W’s Low Key [/i]and Brymo’s [i]Ara. The Headies would have killed a lot of fans out there if the winner of this category wasn’t from my choice list.

BEST VOCAL PERFORMANCE (FEMALE)

If I were The Headies, I would declare everyone in this category the winner. But to be more realistic, I think Tiwa Savage’s Love Me, Love, Love Me wasn’t a disappointment at all.

AFRICAN ARTISTE OF THE YEAR

Nice one!

BEST STREET HOP

I think Reminisce’s Kako Bi Chicken and Chuddy K’s Gaga Crazy are specially made for the street, but no doubt, Gaga Crazy deserves the award.

NEXT RATED

Hmm! Why are the likes of Solid Star, Olamide, May D and some very good bad boys not listed in this category? The Headies must be wrong to choose Davido as the next rated artiste for year 2012. If I may ask, what does it take to be the next rated artiste? I think Davido is already rated.

HIP HOP WORLD REVELATION OF THE YEAR

I think Wizkid really revealed himself this year as a young artiste who can perform a lot of wonders with his crazy free styles in the Nigerian music industry. Truly, the boy is revealing.

I suggest that the organizers of The Headies awards should be more critical in arriving at certain decisions concerning the selection of winners for each award category. The panelists should not base the selection process of the artistes on the public text messages alone in order to avoid irrational and selfish nominations that would diminish the standard and reputation of the award. I also suggest that there should be a category which would serve as a lift and reward for the upcoming artistes in the Nigerian music industry. And lastly, I observed that the sound production of this year’s edition of The Headies was very poor and below expectations. I suggest that more active and competent technical crew should be arranged for the next edition. I hope the next Headies Awards Night would be for real.




Kolade Akinyele is a creative consultant at Thinking Media Ltd. You can reach him via kurlarday@gmail.com or follow @kurlarday on twitter.

source: http://blog.playmyjamz.com/?p=223