Aramide Aribigbola
Lawyer turned rapper, Falz, explored the platform of the 2019 Headies Awards to call on the federal government to release Omoyele Sowore. The long-detained publisher of Sahara Reporters and ex-presidential candidate is currently undergoing trial for treason-related charges.
Falz, who won a total of three awards, including best rap album for ‘Moral Instruction’, thanked the organisers for recognising the importance of using music as an instrument of protest.
The son of renowned lawyer and human rights activist Femi Falana promised to continue to dish out songs to raise social consciousness in the country.
Talented female singer Teni The Entertainer led with four awards, including best recording of the year. Burna Boy and Falz the Bad Guy had three awards each while Mayorkun won two.
The biggest award of the night, artiste of the year, went to Burna Boy who beat other nominees like Wizkid, Davido, Tiwa Savage and Falz to win the category. Known for his uniqueness and dexterity, the gifted musician also won best collaboration and song of the year.
Shifi Omoefe and Zeal Onyechene, members of the singing group Styl-Plus, performed four of their smash singles: ‘Run away’, ‘Call my name’, ‘Imagine That’ and ‘Olufunmi’. There were also live performances from Zaki Adzay, Sunny Neji, Duncan Mighty, Victor AD, and Wurld. While a few of the performances were decent, the rest were below-par and bereft of the much-expected spark on a night of that scale.
On an award night marred by technical glitches, hosting frailties, ‘envelope’ goofs, and absenteeism of top music stars, 19-year-old Divine Ikubor, popularly known as Rema, shone brightly by winning the next rated artist of the year category.
Rema joined a stellar alumini of superstar winners such as Wande Coal, Reekado Banks and Teni. He also gave a performance of his chart-topping breakout song, ‘Dumebi’, just before he won the highly-coveted gong.
Most notably, the special recognition award went to Paul Okoye, concert promoter and CEO of One Africa Music Fest. While delivering a scattered speech, the man popularly known as Paul O revealed that Headies paid N200 million to Livespot Group, owned by Deola and Darey Art-Alade, for the production of the show.
The Headies 2019 also celebrated the lives and achievements of some late music industry icons such as Tosin Bucknor, Ras Kimono and Mad Melon, one-half of singing duo Danfo Driver.
To end the largely underwhelming award ceremony, Teni The Entertainer was invited on stage to perform a medley of her hit songs. The highlight of her performance was when she invited Mike Edwards, first runner up of Big Brother Naija, to join her for the rendition of the incredible popular song ‘Case.’
Full list of winners at the 2019 Headies:
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: Barry Jhay
BEST VOCAL PERFORMANCE(FEMALE) -Teni‘Uyo Meyo’
BEST VOCAL PERFORMANCE (MALE) : Wurld-‘Wishes & Butterfly’
BEST STREET-HOP ARTISTE : Chinko Ekun – ‘Able God’
BEST RECORDING OF THE YEAR: Teni – Uyo Meyo
BEST ALTERNATIVE SONG : Johnny Drille – Finding Efe
BEST RAP ALBUM: Falz – Moral Instruction
BEST RAP SINGLE: Falz – Talk
LYRICIST ON THE ROLL: AQ- Crown
BEST COLLABORATION: Burna Boy ft Zlatan- Killin Dem
BEST PERFORMER : Yemi Alade
BEST R&B SINGLE: Seyi Shay ft Runtow – Gimme Love
BEST POP SINGLE : Teni – Case
BEST R&B / POP ALBUM : Mayorkun – Mayor of Lagos
HEADIES’ VIEWER’S CHOICE : Teni
BEST MUSIC VIDEO : Dangote(Burna Boy) – Clarence Peters (Winner)
HIP HOP WORLD REVELATION: Mayorkun
ALBUM OF THE YEAR: Moral Instruction – Falz
PRODUCER OF THE YEAR: Killertunes- ‘Fake Love’by Duncan Mighty ft Wizkid
SONG OF THE YEAR : Burna Boy-Ye
ARTISTE OF THE YEAR :Burna Boy
NEXT RATED: Rema
