The Headies- formerly known as the Hip Hop World Awards- remains the most popular and revered reward system for Nigerian music talent. For years Nigerian artistes gave the keys of the Nigerian music industry kingdom, to the Headies, looking up to it as the ultimate appreciation for music talents .Winning the Headies is a big deal to them, it redefined the careers of the likes of M.I and Wande Coal.
In a country where mediocrity is the order of the day, any flicker of brilliance is termed as excellence. While the organizers of the award have applauded themselves for pulling it off without a sponsor, there are some areas that needs to be improved on.
- Boring performances
Over the years, the Headies has gained the reputation for being the only award whose performance routines are creative, unusual and outstanding. Dbanj’ 2006 Headies performance, Psquare’s performance of ‘Roll it’ in 2014 are examples of what an electrifying performance look like
Tiwa Savage’s performance of DJ Enimoney’s ‘Diet’ alongside an intoxicated Reminisce did nothing to instill verve to an already bored crowd. First off, the DJ wasn’t swift in playing the song and the band couldn’t start without the DJ . When the song eventually came on the audience had already lost interest.
Though Niniola had tendered an apology over her lacklustre performance, we are of the opinion that she wasn’t supposed to mount that stage because she was already tired and didn’t rehearse with the Alternate Sound band.
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John Drille’s ‘Romeo and Juliet’ and Mr Real’s ‘Legbegbe’ renditions only reflected that these artistes prepared. The greatest thing an entertainer can do before a performance is not to take the audience for granted by preparing well.
- Inclusion of new categories
The Headies is a music award therefore the scope of the award categories needs to be expanded so it can cater for musicians who do other genres of music like Reggae, Fuji, Highlife, Gospel music etc. We are tired of seeing pop artistes being rewarded at the expense of musicians who do other genre of music.
Even the revered Grammys has categories like Best Reggae Album, Best Comedy Album, Best Rock Album, Best Instrumental Composition etc. We can do better so other artistes won’t be marginalized
- Inclusion of statistics and criteria for winning
An award ceremony of this magnitude cannot be without some controversies and artistes expressing their displeasure.
However, the organizers should strive towards shrinking these allegations by producing statistical evidences, showing us the actual number of votes nominees garnered in their various categories.
Secondly, it looks like most artistes are not aware of the criteria for winning the Headies. Organizers need to communicate this properly to the artistes.
For example, Davido clinched the award for the Best Pop Single for his song ‘IF’ which has 63 million views on YouTube. While Runtown who was nominated in the same category for the song ‘Mad over you’ lost out to him, despite the song having 66million times on YouTube.
These inconsistencies and irregularities need to be addressed in order for the award not to lose its credibility
