On Tuesday, 25 August 2026, The Headies, Nigeria’s foremost music awards ceremony—declining fortunes notwithstanding—announced nominees for the ceremony’s 18th edition, set to take place in Toronto, Canada on 23 October, 2026.
A previous announcement on 15 June, tagged “The Big Announcement,” had revealed the details for this edition, including a simulcast watch party in Lagos, where some of the Awards would be given. Additionally, there will be a Trade and Investment Summit and a Creative Summit on 22 October, 2026, as part of ‘Headies Week.’ This is coming even as The Headies celebrates its 20th anniversary, far removed from yonder days as The Hip-Hop World Awards.
The 18th edition was initially scheduled to take place in December 2025 as part of a double feature. In January 2025, Headies Executive Producer and Founder, Ayo Animashaun, had announced that the 17th edition, a carryover from 2024, would take place in April, with the year’s actual edition taking place much later. However, that fell through, meaning that the timeline for the announced nominations spans from 1 August 2024 to 30 April 2026.
Having reviewed the available nomination list, here are our takeaways as we head into Award season proper
1. Applaudable inclusion of the Best Original Song for Visual Media category.
Despite overlaps existing between Nollywood and the Nigerian music industry, including everything from actors to soundtracks, the major music award ceremonies barely recognise film contributions. This is in sharp contrast with what’s obtainable at The Grammys which has the Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media, and Best Score Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media categories. The AMVCA’s Best Score/Music and Best Sound Design categories, while expansive, do not account for original songs. Thankfully, The Headies has now filled that gap.
Songs from Evi, Behind the Scenes, To Kill A Monkey, and Christmas in Lagos, earned nods, respectively. Save Me from Kemi Adetiba’s To Kill A Monkey is perhaps the standout nominee, having been a prominent track on the film’s AMVCA-nominated OST. It could also not have arrived any earlier for the musical Evi, featuring legitimate singing performances from lead actress, Osas Okonyon.
2. Multiple Hip-Hop misses
It’s rather ironic that an Awards ceremony that began as the ‘Hip-Hop World Awards’ seems to be at odds with offering excellent nominees for its Hip-Hop categories. Two of the nominees listed in the Best Alternative Album category, Show Dem Camp’s Afrika Magik, and Zaylevelten’s then 1t g0t crazy belong nowhere else but in the Best Rap Album list. There’s absolutely nothing alternative about both—not SDC’s Palmwine-adjacent, but largely rap-centric arrangements, nor Zaylevelten’s exotic spin on rage rap, street pop, and cloud rap. Wave$tar’s Prada Baby being nominated in the Best Alternative Song category pretty much explains that the selection panel is just averse to melodic rap.
The Lyricist on the Roll selections are an eyesore. Bar PDSTRN’s MOSHOOD and Ycee’s Man 2 Man verse, every other nominated verse weren’t even the respective rappers’ best of the year. Modenine barely outbarred Odumodublvck on If You Like Gym and let’s not even talk about Blaqbonez’s ACL being a repeat of his Chocolate City Cypher mis-nomination. For the Best Rap Album category, then 1t g0t crazy should have been the first name on the list. At least, Wuse Tú made it to the Best Rap Single shortlist. Tuff King’s dual nominations were also deserved. But in broader consideration of the genre, the fact that no underground projects made the list makes one weep for the 2019 glory days.
3. R&B, Soul, and Alternative ladies got their rightful dues
Seeing the diversity of female talent rightfully nominated raises hopes for the next edition where there’ll be even more competition based on current trajectory. Sirens Amaeya (Best Recording, Best Vocal Performance (Female), Songwriter of the Year, and Best R&B single for How Do You?) and Sewa (Best Alternative Album for Detox, Best Alternative Song and Best Vocal Performance (Female) for Lagos Lovin’ and Best Female Artist) grabbed 4 nominations each, a triumphant push not only for female artists, but for the indie scene as a whole.
Additionally, Liya (Skin to Skin) and Layefa (6:35) were also nominated in the Best Vocal Performance category; the former looking to add to her tally in the same category she won at the 17th edition for I’m Done, and the latter also snagging a nod for Best R&B single along with Amma—the voice on Victony’s viral single, SLICK—who was also nominated for Rookie of the Year. In the highly improbable event that she wins, she’d be the first female Rookie of the Year awardee since Teni. Blnde’s Omo to Sexy earning a spot in the Best Alternative songs list makes one wish DEELA had better fortunes with PATIENCE OZOKWOR.
4. Will the Nigerian UG scene please stand up?
After a year like 2025, the least any competent Awards body could do was recognise the wave of talent populating Nigeria’s blossoming Alté third wave, otherwise known as the Underground or UG scene. And boy, have the laurels rolled in!
Aside from the aforementioned artists, Scottyolorin (Olorin Pack) scored a nod in the Best Alternative Album category. The Headies academy apparently found “the silhouette to be as enticing” as we did, as Luwa.mp4’s CYK BADDIE was tapped for Best Alternative Song. In the keenly contested Rookie of the Year category, NO 11 and Danpapa GTA rounded off the tally (Momentum is bound to take NO 11 across the finish line, with his assist on Davido’s Gimme That Thing being the most recent bomba).
5.Bewildering misses and questionable nods
Whose bright idea was it to nominate Cubana Chiefpriest in two undeserving categories? Who really sat down, looked at the abundance of records released within that window of consideration, looked past everyone from the Joyce Olongs to the Johnny Drilles, and settled on a record that’s, at best, middling? And how did we end up skipping Wizkid’s juggernaut collaborations for that Finally concoction?
There are so many other questions with this edition’s nominations. Like so many have pointed out, why is Famous Pluto not on the Rookie of the Year list? No offence, but there’s not a single nominee whose projects top his June 2025 Uzama the 3rd EP—yes, not even FirstKlaz’s Dejavu EP with Iliya Entertainment Music. Asake’s WHY LOVE and DJ Tunez, Wizkid, and Mavo’s MONEY CONSTANT neither made the Song of the Year nor Best Afrobeats Songs shortlist despite playing a huge part in their Digital Artist of the Year nods. Alternative and R&B artists who ordinarily do not enjoy major award placements had to be shrunken into insufficient shortlists despite having multiple worthy nominees within that window. Think Tim Lyre’s Spiral and Dwin The Stoic’s Master of Ballads. The Best Street-Hop Artist nods are rather fitting but what’s to say folks like Bhadboi OML or TML Vibez and Lasmid don’t receive nods had the ceremony been kept to time?
The story of The Headies in this decade is essentially the story of inconsistent selections. And while the 18th edition is an improvement on some years in that window, it’s still undoubtedly flawed as a reflection of Nigerian music. That this is the story after 20 years is an indictment of everyone involved. We might not be prophets, but let’s tell you what will happen in October: The ceremony will start late. Several A-list nominees won’t bother to show up to receive their award and one or two might even have a show scheduled somewhere else that day. Old-timers will be brought on to perform their classic records while we ride the wave of nostalgia. Eventual winners of key categories will draw ire. The hosts will inevitably make distasteful jokes about Nigeria and Nigerians. Fans will crash out, running live commentary for a show we claim to hate but can’t do without. And in the end, a young artist will craft a crass statement against the Headies. You can see hints of this already in how Mavo ‘big brother-ed’ his Next Rated nomination on X, like Tekno did a decade ago.
Culture Custodian wrote about The Headies losing the plot in 2014. We wrote about the dire need for reinvention in 2019. Similar complaints arose in 2023 and 2024. And then, last year, as well. There are only so many ways one can scream into the void before being termed disillusioned. Organisers seem to think that this is what Africa’s second largest music market deserves: to be packaged on a plane to the West for even more cringeworthy moments. It’s not that critics do not acknowledge the logistical nightmare that is funding and hosting an Awards ceremony of this magnitude annually. However, it’s not too much to demand a modicum of consistent excellence after 20 years. Or is it?
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