The energy at Cobb’s Center Atlanta was definitely on a high. Even from our screens, we could feel the palpable vibe that came from performing artists, nominees, and awardees. Well… as much as we could. The 15th edition of the most prestigious award show in Nigeria, the Headies Award 2022 finally held on the 4th of September. A list of nominees was put up a few months ago, with some categories up for voting.
If the Headies award show has been long months of waiting and planning, why then is there still so much dissatisfaction among the viewers? Okay, I might be getting ahead of myself here. Before we talk about the reason for the public’s general displeasure, let’s discuss the award show itself. The hosts, the big winners, and how Nigerians felt about the Headies 2022.
The hosts were Osas Ighodaro and Anthony Anderson. Yes, you read that right. The Black-ish Anthony Anderson. One recurring thought was why they decided to let a non-Nigerian host our award show. I thought the whole point of taking it overseas was to show the world just how well we can do it by ourselves. On the other hand, it does broaden the scope of the audience both at home and abroad. So, it might be a good thing for long term plans. Apart from those few awkward jokes, legwork that was painful to watch and ‘Wakandan African’ accents by Anthony that made me cringe, I think they did a fairly good job.
Wizkid, Tems, and Bnxn
I don’t think it will be out of place to say that Wizkid and Tems took over the 15th edition of the 2022 Headies Award. It only seemed right that after giving us the song of the summer with “Essence”, they should bag as many wins as they did. Some fans believed that they should have had more wins. Wizkid went home with five Headies, making him the most awarded artist of the night. On the other hand, Tems went home with four.
Their hit collab bagged three wins, including best collaboration, song of the year, and best R&B single. Wizkid’s “Made in Lagos” album bagged the awards for Album of the Year and Best Afrobeat Pop Album. For Tems, “If Orange Was A Place” won best R&B album. It was definitely a much deserved win.
The biggest award of the night, “Next Rated Artist,” went to Bnxn, formerly known as Buju. He copped himself a brand new Bentley worth over $30,000. Some people have the opinion that these next rated gifts are a bit too extravagant. Instead, maybe they should invest in artist development. What do you think?
Pandered Awards?
As with any award show, there will always be whispers of awards given to undeserving artists while the seemingly deserving artists are being shunned. Although sentiments may alter the thoughts of the general public because everyone has their faves, there are some opinions that are widely agreed to by a large number of the viewing audience. One such example is the win for best inspirational song, bagged by Kcee for “Cultural Praise”. While it’s a great song, many people felt he was up against more deserving artists like Nathaniel Bassey or at least Dunsin Oyekan. On the other hand, was it really a category for inspirational songs or was it a category for gospel songs?
Another award that people felt misplaced is the award for the best alternative album, won by Ibeji. Personally, I agree with the public on this one. In a category that had Brymo, The Cavemen, and Basketmouth as nominees, Ibeji was probably not the best choice. It was as if the gods of the Headies were saying, “We want to keep you all happy.” Which, let’s be honest, will never be possible.
Patoranking went home with two Headies. One for the best reggae/dancehall song of the year and another for the recording of the year. This was another win that I felt might’ve not been completely deserved. Was the song really reggae or dancehall? I know it’s a numbers game, but still, the viewers did not completely agree with it.
Performances from the Headies award 2022
You already know the artists came with the right energy. The show opened up with Pheelz performing his hit song “Finesse” and ended with a drawn out performance by Dbanj. There were several other performances in between by Ruger, Fireboy DML, Adekunle Gold, Asake,Ladipoe, and Bnxn.
With all these electric performances, it was hard not to notice the technical glitches because our eyes were glued to our screens. Even after so many years of the Headies being associated with technical glitches and bad transmission, there were several blackouts for those streaming the event. At one point, we had to watch the show for about 5 minutes or more without audio transmission, big sigh.
Again, the question begs to be asked. Why bother to take the Headies Award 2022 all the way to ATL if we’re still going to be watching visuals of poor quality? Isn’t the point to show the world that what we have is good enough for everyone to enjoy? How can we expect them to enjoy it if we don’t even enjoy watching it? While the Headies may have come a long way in terms of fine tuning, there’s still a lot of work to be done. From the red carpet organization to seamless transitions throughout the show to the general quality of the event. Several churches and media houses across the country can seamlessly stream their services every Sunday, but the prestigious Headies awards have not quite figured out how to do that yet.
Inclusion of international stars in the 2022 Headies Award
In this aspect, the award show did not disappoint. Non-Nigerian celebrities like influencer Angelina Simon and so many others presented several awards. If the goal was to be as inclusive as possible in order to widen the audience’s reach, I think they did well on that. However, I think it came a little too close to an uneven number of Nigerian presenters and non-Nigerian presenters.
The award categories were also inclusive of other African and international artists. The Best Artists from North, Central, and East Africa were all awarded, while the best international artist award went to Chris Brown.
Absentees
Even though this was his night, your fave, Wizkid was at a performance in London. The biggest stars in the country were all absent. Burna Boy was not there to receive his African artist of the year award, Tems was absent as well. It’s understandable that things might come up, but for all these big names to be absent, it didn’t sit quite right.
Apart from being absent, some of the awardees took forever to get up and get their awards. This gave a lot of time lag that dragged on and was probably one of the reasons why the show went on for so long. Yet, they still had so many unannounced categories because they ran out of time. The show started incredibly late and did not keep to time in any way, so I definitely laughed when Osas and Anthony made that joke about African time. Come on, guys, it’s 2022.
Final Thoughts on the Headies Awards 2022
Our expectations were definitely higher than they’d usually be and so we were more disappointed than we usually are. Some people are of the opinion that this might’ve been the worst Headies edition ever. I don’t think it was, but at the same time, we have no excuses. The world finally has its attention on us and our art, so it’s only right that we give them something that’ll be worth their while. If taking us abroad is still going to give us the same results, then maybe we should bring The Headies back to Nigeria and fix up before going overseas.