Five Talking Points in Headies Awards 2020 Nominations

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Five Talking Points in Headies Awards 2020 Nominations

On December 4, 2020, Smooth promotions and HipTv, organizers of Nigeria’s Headies awards, published the nominee for the 14th Headies Awards.

With how dramatic 2020 has been, many thought the award won’t take place this year. The decision to carry on with the award show this year must have been a hard decision for the organizers to make. Aside from pushing to host this event this year, the organizers have now added a new category to the existing 29 categories. They introduced the Songwriter of the Year category to celebrate songwriters whose works have been undervalued for a long time in the Nigerian music space. According to Headies, the new award category is designed to “bring to the limelight hardworking individuals who have all significantly supported the creation of quality music.”

Though Fireboy DML lost the popular Next Rated category to Mavin records Rema last year, the singer has now bagged nine nominations this year making him the most nominated artiste at the 14 Headies awards. He was nominated for Best Recording of the Year, Best R&B Album, Best Pop Album, Album of the Year, Best Music Video, Best R&B Single, Headies Revelation, Songwriter of the year, and the Headies Viewer’s Choice Award. Davido, Burna Boy, Simi, Wizkid, and others were all nominated as well.

Despite the addition of a brand new category to celebrate songwriters, Headies awards seem to have failed to balance a few things in their recently published nomination list according to popular opinions. Here are five talking points we have noticed regarding the Headies Awards nomination list for the 2020 edition.

1. No Burna Boy Song Nominated For Song Of Year

It actually raises eyebrows for an artist who was nominated for Artiste of the Year to not have a song in the Song of the Year category. Despite dishing out two albums in the year under review with a couple of singles, Burna Boy couldn't get a song nominated for song of the year. That's definitely confusing.

2. Apollo or LTG For Album Of The Year

With all due respect to Fireboy DML's "Apollo" album, many will agree with me that his debut album "Laughter, Tears, and Goosebumps" was a better body of work. So if a Fireboy DML album was to be nominated for the Album of the Year category, it should have been LTG.

3. Terri Not Nominated

For an artiste who had hit songs and a well-received debut project, I think I'm in support of the school of thought argues that it is improper for Terri not to have been nominated for Headies. Terri with his "Ojoro" hit track and adorable "Afro Series" EP wasn't even nominated for Rookie of the Year, a category that had Alpha P. That's fishy!

4. Bad Boy Timz Missing Out At The Next Rated

Even though Bad Boy Timz hasn't had more impact, he can join the likes of Omah Lay who doesn't need to be featured on Rookie to be able to get a next rated nomination. The singer has given us some amazing tunes and even featured on Olamide's recent album. I think his omission from the Next Rated category is questionable.

5. No Category For Gospel Artistes

 Headies Awards are indeed trying to be a pacesetter as far as music awards in the country is concerned. With their popularity and branding, I expected to have a category for gospel artistes at the 14th Headies but that wasn't the case.

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