The awards proper.
1. YE – BURNA BOY
2. DROGBA – AFRO B
3. SCIENCE STUDENT – OLAMIDE
4. FEVER – WIZKID
5. SOCO – STARBOY FT WIZKID, TERRI, SPOTLESS & CEEZA MILLI
6. KUPE DANCE – A STAR
7. MAGUN (RMX) – NINIOLA FT. BUSISWA
8. AVAILABLE – PATORANKING
9. TIWA’S VIBE – TIWA SAVAGE
This was the first award of the night and it came as a shock to everyone that Wande Coal’s ‘So Mi So’ won Viewers Choice. A great song no doubt but not a fans’ favourite. At least compared to ‘Soco’, ‘Science Student’ and Afro-B’s ‘Drogba’ outside these shores. The Headies has categories it lists as non-voting that allow it reward whomever it pleases and I couldn’t help but think the MVP would be better off doing same than trying to pass off Wande’s record as Viewers Choice.
1. CLUB CONTROLLER – PRINCE KAYBEE FT LASOULMATES
2. KATIKA – NAVY KENZO FT. DIAMOND PLATNUMZ
3. SOCO – STARBOY
4. WETIN WE GAIN – VICTOR AD
5. KWANGQARU – HARMONIZE FT DIAMOND PLATNUMZ
6. FAKE LOVE – WIZKID & DUNCAN MIGHTY
7. CONFUSION – KUAMI EUGENE
8. CCTV – KING PROMISE FT. MUGEEZ, SARKODIE
9. ASKAMAYA – TENI
10.YE-BURNA BOY (WINNER)
There is making categories not tight so you can pick a choice without raising much dust. But you put credibility at stake when that choice isn’t one of the songs that made it a tight contest. This was really between Victor AD’s ‘Wetin We Gain’ on one hand and Wizkid’s ‘Fake Love’ and ‘Soco’ on the other. The MVP will get away with this for the sole reason that for the very first time in a long while, the hottest artiste in a year isn’t Olamide, Wizkid or Davido. It’s Burna Boy and anything Burna would fly.
BEST GROUP OR DUO
1. DISTRUCTION BOIZ
2. SAUTI SOL
3. MI CASA
4. MAFIKIZOLO
5. SHOW DEM CAMP
6. R2BEES
7. TOOFAN
8. GOLD FISH
9. REGGIE N’ BOLL
10. NAVYKENZO (WINNER)
Sauti Sol made the very mesmerizing ‘Melanin’ with Patoranking and ‘Afrikan Star’ with Burna boy just before it. Navy Kenzo’s ‘Katika’ was huge in East Africa but it would only be logical for a group with hits and a fan base stretching from East to West Africa to win this. But then there is logical and there is what you get.
BEST NEW ARTISTE
1. KIDI
2. SHO MADJOZI
3. ODUNSI
4. PERUZZI
5. KIDA KUDZ
6. SHANE EAGLE
7. KING PROMISE
8. KWESI ARTHUR
9. MBOSSO
10.TENIOLA (WINNER)
Spot-on. There was no way in the world this wouldn’t be Teni. Kwesi Arthur is buzzing in Ghana and as talented as Peruzzi may be, he is still yet to score a hit. Teni went into the night with 2 very huge ones.
Kida Kudz has to have some major lines at Sound City. He appeared from nowhere to perform before the show proper and was nominated for Best New Artiste. Kida has been around for long and is best known for his 2014 song titled ‘Le Boo’ featuring Ice Prince. If SoundCity doesn’t know that then its a Wawu.
DIGITAL ARTISTE OF THE YEAR
1. DAVIDO
2. TIWA SAVAGE
3. BURNA BOY
4. CASSPER NYOVEST
5. VANESSA MDEE
6. FALZ
7. WIZKID
8. DIAMOND PLATNUMZ
9. YEMI ALADE
10. MR EAZI (WINNER)
I heard a lot of people cry over this but i totally agree with it. Mr Eazi was reported to have made a total of $600k in streams and views in October and in the first week of December, had racked up 163M streams on Spotify alone.Quite impressive for an artiste that isn’t even top 3 in Nigeria. Upcoming artistes get a lot of tips on how to make the most of this digital era and Mr Eazi references will feature prominently in those tips.
BEST POP
1. KIZZ DANIEL
2. FALLY IPUPA
3. TIWA SAVAGE
4. YEMI ALADE
5. DIAMOND PLATNUMZ
6. MAYORKUN
7. WIZKID
8. KUAMI EUGENE
9. MR EAZI
10. DAVIDO (WINNER)
This was always going to be between Wizkid and Davido and in as much as Wizkid is the bigger artiste, Davido is more consistent with a lesser miss ratio. Very much on point.
BEST COLLABORATION
1. MAKHE – DJ MAPHORISA, DJ SIMBA FT MOONCHILD SANELLY
2. JIBEBE – DIAMOND PLATNUMZ, MBOSSO, LAVA LAVA
3. KATIKA – NAVY KENZO FT. DIAMOND PLATNUMZ
4. ISSA GOAL – NAIRA MARLEY, OLAMIDE, LIL KESH
5. SPIRIT – KWESTA FT WALE
6. FAKE LOVE – WIZKID AND DUNCAN MIGHTY
7. CLUB CONTROLLER – PRINCE KAYBEE FT LASOULMATES
8. SAID – NASTYC & RUNTOWN
9. AMAKA – 2FACE IDIBIA FT. PERRUZI
10. SOCO – STARBOY FT WIZKID, TERRI, SPOTLESS & CEEZA MILLI (WINNER)
This has to be the tightest category of the night. Anyone of 5 other songs out of the 10 listed would have won this without raising any eyebrows. This was Wizkid’s (Star boy if you like) only award of the night. SoundCity some how managed to keep everyone happy.
1. GRINGO – SHATTA WALE
2. MIDNIGHT DRUM – A PASS, ROUGE, FIK FAMEICA
3. SHORT N’ SWEET – SAUTI SOL
4. YE – BURNA BOY
5. FEVER – WIZKID
6. SURRENDA – ADEKUNLE GOLD
7. SCIENCE STUDENT – OLAMIDE
8. KING – NASTY C FT A$AP FERG
9. KSAZOBALIT – CASSPER NYOVEST
10. HEAL THE WORLD – PATORANKING (WINNER)
Patoranking’s ‘Heal The World’ is not only the best video in Africa right now, but it is also the very best in recent memory. Quite magical. I feel so sorry for Shatta Wale. I would be saying the very same thing about Shatta Wale’s ‘Gringo’ if Patoranking hadn’t made Heal The World. Two of the very best videos Africa has seen in one year; talk about a blessing and a curse. Special credit must go to the MVP for its nominations here. Wizkid’s Fever aside, every other thing here was top notch.
AFRICAN PRODUCER OF THE YEAR
1. KILLERTUNES
2. JULZ
3. SARS
4. NAHREEL
5. NORTHBOI
6. DJ TIRA
7. SPEROACHBEATZ
8. FRESH VDM
9. KEL P
10. PHANTOM (WINNER)
‘Since Ye is the song of the year then its only right the producer is the best of the year’. I really don’t quite agree with Mama Burna’s logic. If you’ll give the HEADIES props for anything, it is that they have the songs the producers are nominated for listed along with their names. Killertunes, Speroach Beatz and Fresh VDM made more than one hit in the period under review. And even if we were to talk one hit, then Sarz made the quite monstrous ‘Diet’. Finally, if robustness were to count above the ‘pon pon’ sound, then Julz will take this home. All of them over a Phantom we don’t know, Or rather didn’t know.
BEST HIP HOP
1. M.I ABAGA
2. KHALIGRAPH JONES
3. NASTY C
4. KWESI ARTHUR
5. PHYNO
6. SARKODIE
7. KWESTA
8. FALZ
9. MEDIKAL
10.AKA (WINNER)
This is the craziest moment of the night. People in the hall grumbled loud right into the next award. AKA beat Nasty C to best hip-hop based in the year the latter released the most critically acclaimed rap album Africa has ever seen; ‘Strings and Blings’. At this point, it was starting to become clear that SoundCity rewards foreign artistes who attend with the awards they are nominated for. Perhaps to sell its brand on the integrity card across the continent. Navy Kenzo, AKA, Busiswa all came and clinched their categories.
If it was meant to be a secret then this category blew it all open because people will always look into just how possible it was for AKA to pull this off. Falz had ‘This is Nigeria’ and a couple of other great singles while Kwesi Arthur was hot all year. Medikal got so much love for ‘How Much’, he had to make a remix. All these artistes would win this category ahead of AKA on a level playing field. Nasty C lost the best hip-hop to AKA. How on earth can anyone sell that?.
SONG OF THE YEAR
1. SHORT & SWEET – SAUTI SOL FT NYASHINKI
2. AFRICAN BEAUTY – DIAMOND PLATNUMZ FT. OMARION
3. SOCO – STARBOY FT WIZKID, TERRI, SPOTLESS & CEEZA MILLI
4. KATIKA – NAVY KENZO FT. DIAMOND PLATNUMZ
5. MAKHE – DJ MAPHORISA, DJ SIMBA FT MOONCHILD SANELLY
6. SKELETON MOVES – MASTER KG
7. ASSURANCE – DAVIDO
8. AMAKA – TUFACE IDIBIA
9. KWANGWARU – HARMONIZE FT. DIAMOND PLATNUMZ
10. YE – BURNA BOY (WINNER)
I understand the Modric as opposed to Messi and Ronaldo analogy on the need for fresh air and how everyone loves a new kid on the block but to put it quite simply-‘Soco’, ‘Assurance’ and ‘Amaka’ were bigger hits than Burna boy’s ‘Ye’. But then again, Burna had such a great year, anything with his name on it will stick.
AFRICAN ARTISTE OF THE YEAR
1. DAVIDO
2. SARKODIE
3. YEMI ALADE
4. A.K.A
5. TIWA SAVAGE
6. WIZKID
7. DIAMOND PLATNUMZ
8. NASTY C
9. OLAMIDE
10. BURNA BOY (WINNER)
AFRICAN DJ OF THE YEAR
1. BLACK COFFEE
2. DJ SPINALL
3. DJ MIC SMITH
4. DJ KAYWISE
5. DJ XCLUSIVE
6. DJ NEPTUNE
7. PRINCE KAYBE
8. DJ ARAFAT
9. DJ MAPHORISA
10. DJ VYRUSKY
The only talk worthy thing DJ Neptune did in 2018 was releasing an album. Spinall, on the other hand, was at the One World concert in South Africa and had 2 smash hits in ‘Nowo’ with Wizkid and ‘Baba’ with Kizz Daniels. Yes, those songs and lest I forget, he was made a Pepsi DJ ambassador in March. The choice of DJ Neptune over him is quite absurd.
1. SIMI
2. NINIOLA
3. TIWA SAVAGE
4. YEMI ALADE
5. SHEKHINAH
6. EFYA
7. BECCA
8. LADY ZAMAR
9. MAUA SAMA
10. BUSISWA (WINNER)
Most of the top female stars here were either not consistent (Tiwa Savage’s ‘Lova Lova’ is her only decent effort), semi-hibernating (Simi especially) or are simply starting to lose it (Yemi Alade). Becca released a joint EP with Ycee that didn’t quite measure up and she hasn’t had a hit since ‘Number 1’, her 2017 hit with Mr Eazi. Efya, on the other hand, put in some good work but I agree with Busiswa. She has been on a meteoric rise over the last few years. Great artiste.
1. NASTY C
2. MR EAZI
3. OLAMIDE
4. A.K.A
5. SHATTA WALE
6. HARMONIZE
7. DIAMOND PLATNUMZ
8. DAVIDO
9. WIZKID
10. BURNA BOY (WINNER)
OluwaBurna no doubt. Burna ended 2017 on a high and moved onto another realm altogether when he released the ‘Outside’ album. Google searches for Kanye West’s ‘Ye’ album led to his song with the same title and that earned him some massive international exposure. His mom made sure she thanked Kanye for that. He was featured on YouTube’s ‘Artiste on the Rise’ campaign for 3 months shortly after collecting his plaque for selling out the 5,000 capacity Brixton Academy, O2 Arena in the UK. Everyone agrees 2018 was his year. Even the ever fanatical #Teams Wizkid and Davido have had to overlook some very controversial Ye wins, in his honour perhaps.
The 2019 MVP was a very crucial one and despite some very sad moments, it did not disappoint on an overall scale. Nigerian artistes aren’t quite elaborate or extraordinary with award performances and the MVP lumping multiple artistes into a single performance break is a very nice touch. They say you can never go through an entire award show without being disappointed with a win or two but that disappointment is a lot much harder to take when those wins defy reason. I hope to see a better Soundcity MVP next year.
