Good day, The Headies Awards organisers,
Many congratulations on hosting the 16th iteration of the prestigious Headies Awards. You will be observant to note that these hearty congratulations are not for “successfully hosting”, because to praise you for a successful show would be to acknowledge that the criteria for success is putting together an award show and then handing out plaques to the winners.
But the Headies is Nigeria’s premier music award, so it must be held to higher standards. We see that so many of the errors from last year have returned this year, so we cannot help but notice that it appears you do not take the feedback from social media very seriously.
And the purpose of this letter is to reiterate those complaints, because there are some gaffes that are so big that they undermine whatever other effort has been put into the show. Like this: why was Nigeria’s premier award held in the United States of America for the second year in a row? How do you hope for the international community to respect your music when you have shown that you do not value your own people?
How do you convince investors to get involved in building local music institutions when the premier award has sought a base in the USA? It is instructive to remember that our goal is to export Afrobeats, not relocate it. The one fair argument in this favor is the increased amount of Nigerian artists who are granted Visas by the US consulate, however, it nevertheless excludes a great deal of other professionals who contribute greatly to the genre from its source.
I cant lie this might be the one amazing thing with hosting the headies in the US and having the us consulate grant artists visas.
— TAJ (@AyomideTaj) September 11, 2023
Theres now a good opportunity for these bridges to be built across the 2 industries and not just the A-list guys will benefit.
So i say big W here. https://t.co/EYWPYkvTKa
And with this relocation came promises of a standard venue and better production quality. The Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre is a class venue for performing arts, so we can safely assume that whatever production hitches still persist are your fault and can no longer be blamed on local venues.
So, we ask, after enduring this mislocation, why do we still have to sit through microphones that do not work, or on-screen graphics that do not always respond to the intention of the host, leading to awkward seconds while the error is being corrected?
Why was the background soundtrack announcing the nominees for Rookie Of The Year while Best Rap Single award was being presented? Why did an award presenter name Obongjayar‘s “Tinko Tinko” as the winner of the Best Alternative Song category while the board displayed Wizard Chan‘s “Earth Song”?
On the subject of awards and presentations, we wish we could say this particular mix-up was the most embarrassing event of the night. It would have been a strong contender, because in all your years we have never seen two songs credited with winning one award, but you had something even bigger in store. After the show we realised we had just watched a three hour celebration of NIgerian music’s best and brightest but no single award collected on the night was by a woman.
There were female winners like Artist Of The Year (Female), won by Ayra Starr, Vocal Performance Of The Year (Female), won by Waje, Songwriter Of The Year, won by Simi and Best Central African Artist, won by Libianca. But you decided that these categories, along with nine others, would not be announced on stage with everything else. We cannot put into words how bad this looks, especially when the male versions of some of these awards were presented on stage. It sends signals that you perhaps view female artists as inferior to their male characters, especially since you are yet to put out any other explanation or apology.
Ayra Starr has already put out a statement rejecting her award for how shoddily it was given, and you cannot blame her. In 2017 Wizkid spoke about the BET giving African artists their awards backstage and how this led to him boycotting those award shows, but to be treated that way in your own country is much worse. We do not think it needs to be said that something of this sort must never happen again.
In the future too, we would like to see a lot less foreign faces and names at the award show. It is a little absurd that a Nigerian watching a Nigerian award show needs an introduction for several of the award presenters. More of Olu Maintain, Omawunmi and Eldee The Don, less of Sukihana and Abou Thiam. And please, no American co-host the next time around. We’ve tried it with Anthony Anderson last year and Terence J. this year and we can no longer accept that there are no Nigerian male presenters that can give us better than these stiff, inauthentic performances.
Ultimately, the reason we are so analytical of every move you make is because Nigerian music means so much to us and we cannot help but make sure that the artists behind it receive the level of recognition they deserve, so they do not travel across continents only to be presented an award on Twitter.
Rema’s award speech harped on the importance of supporting Nigerian institutions and the need for unity among performers of Nigerian music, warning of the danger of erasure of our music when we do not build properly from the ground up. And his speech could not have come at a better time.
As Nigerian music continues to soar internationally, it is important that our institutions grow at the same pace. If we cannot host an award show properly, we cannot hope to execute Nigerian-themed music festivals and carnivals, the likes of which our artists are routinely contracted to perform abroad.
The Headies is our own and we support it through thick and thin, so you can trust that even after our criticism of this edition, we will still be tuned in on time to watch next year’s ceremony. All we ask in return, is that our reactions are taken into future decision making processes, and that we get the feeling that every available effort is expended to make sure these award programs are not just done but done at increasingly higher standards. Is it too much to ask?
