Five Key Takeaways From The 17th Headies

The 17th edition of the Headies, Nigeria’s premier music award, was held on Sunday, and as usual, it was a festive music event, featuring both freshly minted stars and music legends alike vying for their own iconic Headies plaque. It also saw the return of the many drawbacks that we must now assume to be a part of the Headies experience—professionalism issues, technical errors, time delays—that were not mitigated even when the award was relocated to Atlanta, Georgia, for two years. With this year’s edition dubbed “Back to Base,” Hip TV brought the ceremony back to Lagos, Nigeria, a move that was lauded by most of the industry as the ceremony was beginning to lose its Nigerian origin. As some artists revel in their wins from Sunday while others swear off the award entirely, here are five main takeaways from the 17th Edition of the Headies.

Two Years Off, Still The Same Old Issues

The Headies award was not held last year due to operational challenges, meaning that Sunday’s ceremony, which covers the period from April 2023 to July 2024, is the first of two shows scheduled for this year. It is unfortunate to note that even the long hiatus that this event spent in production was not sufficient to fix the perennial operational issues, which, if I were of the superstitious sort, I would regard as something of a curse by now. There was no respect for time, as the award ceremony started an hour late and stretched till nearly 4 am the next morning, at which time both hosts and audience were visibly tired. 

This makes the next problem even funnier: after spending nearly five hours at the ceremony, the Headies could not announce all of its winners on Sunday, with some pretty big categories—Album of the Year, Artist of the Year, Best Rap Album—announced on their website hours later. For those who were called up to receive their awards on stage, not everyone could receive a plaque, as it was mentioned that some of them were in transit. The result of this was that Shallipopi had to settle for a handshake instead, and he has since taken to X (fka Twitter) to announce that he will not be showing up for the next edition. We may be able to overlook more technical problems in the spirit of the Headies being “our own” (to quote Gabriel Afolayan’s remarks on the night), but if Hip TV cannot be counted on to provide enough plaques for its awardees, then how low must we set the bar?

The Headies Continues To Lose Credibility

The cumulative consequences of years of misadventure are that the Headies keep losing credibility in the eyes of the audience and the artists. For the last few years, Wizkid and Burna Boy have not bothered to grace Nigeria’s top music award with an appearance, and yesterday, it looked like the disregard has continued to spread. Asake, Rema, and Ayra Starr, who all attended last year’s edition and were nominated in several categories for this one, were conspicuously missing. Thankfully, Davido continues to be one of the Headies’ biggest supporters, and his continual presence is important because it informs the younger generation that the Headies is still an award to aspire to. Still, the power of any award show is in how seriously it is taken, so the Headies must be wary that their perennial problems do not chase away Nigeria’s biggest stars.

More Clout Than Craft

As the Headies gradually loses credibility amongst musicians, a gradual effect (and perhaps a contributing factor) is that the Headies is increasingly a Pop Culture event rather than a music-focused event. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but the fast-changing and somewhat flimsy nature of Nigerian celebrity does confer an unnecessarily unserious nature to the award ceremony. Amongst the people called up to present awards at Sunday’s ceremony were ex-Big Brother housemates, Nollywood actors, and Instagram celebrities. The Headies will benefit from a greater focus on music legends, music producers, and record label executives, especially at a time when its seriousness is in question. Still on the subject of presenters, calling up people related to the winners to present awards (like Tems’ mother, Dr. Openiyi, presenting the award for Best Recording of the year for Burning to her daughter, and then receiving the award on her behalf) only douses the gravity of the occasion and even calls to question the credibility of selections. 

Performances Were A Mixed Bag

One thing the Headies does nail down year after year is a healthy roster of artists invited to perform. On Sunday, this tradition continued, pulling in artists from different generations of Nigerian music, and beyond, but the performances from them were varied. Odumodublvck provided one of the most energetic sets, giving renditions of Pity This Boy and Not All That in a balance between his singing and rapping sides. Flavour’s performance was one of South Eastern royalty, providing fan-favorite songs like Dike and Big Baller as well as his staple, Ashewo. The accolade for best performer of the night would probably go to Juma Jux, the Tanzanian singer who also took the award for Best East African Artist, while Qing Madi, L.A.X, and Blaqbonez were also notable strong performers. However, Shallipopi’s set was too disjointed to really make an impact, as the singer tried to deliver too many songs within his allotted time, and the less said about Ayo Maff’s lip-synced delivery, the better. 

Redemption Is Still on the Table

Despite the myriad of problems that the Headies carries from year to year, as well as the new ones that are peculiar to each edition, it remains Nigeria’s premier music accolade. It also remains wholly salvageable, as the majority of issues would be easily fixed if a lot more effort and attention was paid to excellence. The 18th Headies comes around this December, according to the schedule, intended to cater for the one year following August 2024. Then, the chance presents itself for Hip TV to show that they do take feedback, and to provide a show that artists can aspire to and fans can enjoy.