Is Soundcity MVP Awards replacing The Headies?

It has been an eventful year for the Nigerian music industry while lots of ‘ohh’s’ and ‘ahh’s’ not forgetting the ‘wawuuu’s’. Many artistes broke into the international scene with their music while some others remained redundant and others vanished into thin air.

There were lots of controversies and beefs among artistes, all making for an entertaining viewing for their teeming fans and supporters.

The awards segment of the industry was not left out as many were rewarded with accolades while many were shunned while some were dishonorably disqualified for reasons not quiet tangible.

We had awards like The Headies, Soundcity MVP Awards, NMVA, Scream Youth Awards, Lagos Fashion Show Awards to mention a few. The two that stood out remarkably were The Headies and Soundcity MVP Awards.

The Headies which metamorphosed from Hip-Hop Awards has been the longest running award in Nigeria and at a point the most prominent. But down the line, lots of conspiracy theories sprang up from all corners with people shouting foul play with the awards. Like the saying – ‘no smoke without fire’, the awards prominence began to dwindle with artistes especially not honouring invitations to partake of the awards proceedings. This continued over the years and culminated in last year’s highly celebrated beef among two power houses in the industry – The Mavins and YBNL Nation.

This year saw The Headies enshrined in yet another controversy after they somehow and for reasons explainable by them disqualified one of the nominees, making them the first to do such in the Nigerian music industry. And causing a major uproar and backlash from the public even the main awards took place. The award took place and saw yet the same absence of major nominees and industry people. With the exception of Wizkid who turned up for this year’s edition of the awards, almost all the major winners did not turn up for the night of awards.

Now the Soundcity MVP Awards was a big contrast to The Headies as not only did it witness a tremendous turn out, it also had all in attendance with the exception of Kiss Daniels, Cassper Nyovest and Yemi Alade who were ‘truly’ unavoidably absent due to engagements. And the awards went on well with Tekno taking home a hat-trick followed by Wizkid with a brace, and there were no disagreements or discrepancies with regards to the eventual winners. The artistes and public were in agreement with all the winners not to mention the performance from the artistes as well which had the people who attended the award all screaming in ecstasy.

Now the question lies in why would all the nominees for Soundcity MVP Awards turn up to grace the event even those from outside Nigeria but the same was not so for The Headies? Does it mean a change of trust? Or better organisation? Or just plain ‘away with the old and move with the new’?

Has The Headies outlived its authenticity and prominence as a result of uncountable controversies over the years? Soundcity network has been known to be a pillar for contemporary visual entertainment in Nigeria supporting artistes with top notch airplay which HipTv (owners of The Headies) also does but Soundcity tends to have more edge on airplays. Are we going to now accept that Soundcity MVP Awards is here to replace the age-long Headies?

Well let us watch and see as it goes for 2017.