IKENNA OBIOHA
Award shows are often anticipated for the surreal glamour on red carpet, sophisticated engineered stage and the surprise that comes with announcing the evening’s winner from a pool of deserving nominees.
But there are other times when these often scripted shows fail to actualise the purpose of the script forged to bring all these elements together, thus ending with unprecedented drama.
The international stage has seen a fair share of this: from announcing the wrong winner best picture at the 2017 Oscars, to Nicki Minaj publicly addressing Miley Cyrus at the MTV VMAs, and not to forget the epic Kanyi West ‘I’ma let you finish’ rant in defence of Beyonce’s loss to Taylor Swift. For the shortlist today, we look at some of the mishaps that occurred at some of the local award shows in Nigeria.
Peruzzi And Teni (Twitter Rant) Soundcity MVP Awards (2018)
2018 saw a good number of new acts rising to mainstream acceptance with their unique art projections. Teni the Entertainer and Peruzzi happen to be two of 10 hopefuls at the award show with a chance at clinching the trophy. Eventually, the accolade went to Teni but that didn’t sit well with Peruzzi who went on a now deleted twitter rant to air his dissatisfaction. The tweet reads:
“Personally I’d say I worked the hardest last year than any other new act, same way I made more money last year than any other new act in the country. There is a way I see myself, it’s my race, there’s a way I’m running it. Focus on yours, facts over hype. It’s really simple.”
Shortly after his tweet, he received backlash from twitter users who pointed out that he had yet to release a standalone single and only flourished in the presence of established acts. Though he might have lost his shot, he gained viral attention from the twitter universe.
Disgruntled P-Square at the Hip Hop Awards (2008)
The Headies (formerly known as the Hip Hop World Awards) will in a sense be dubbed the Nigerian VMAs with the numerous controversies that trails it in various shades. One of such era was at the third edition where the fire duo of P-Square went home with zero wins despite having a couple of successful singles which defined the music landscape the previous year. That year, a greater percentage of the south-west (Yoruba) artiste won across all categories.
Irked by how things turned out, Jude ‘Engee’ Okoye their manager and elder brother attacked the award body by labelling their action as ‘tribal attack’. Although some other artistes from other regions won, he insisted that the body was biased on their decision-making and thereafter renamed them as ‘Yoruba Awards’.
Back-to-Back Diss Between Wizkid And Davido (2017)
Till 2017’s Wizkid homecoming concert where he and Davido kissed and made up, a good part of that year’s activities revolved around issues of supremacy in the industry. With Wizkid taking home three awards at the 2017 All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA) leaving Davido with none, Davido spared no time at shaming not just Wizkid but also the AFRIMA committee when he won Best International Act at that year’s MTV EMA. He took to Snapchat to say,
“F@@k that poo… Omo make those ones keep their awards. Award wey dey peel. Even the one wey I collect two years ago don peel finish. My name is Davido, Best Worldwide Act EMA. See you can’t play me, come for your head.”
The jabs thrown at Wizkid evoked shady comments on Davido’s vocal prowess on social media. Using the frog emoji, he and his fans jeered at Davido, branding him a frog for the way he sounds.
Don Jazzy And Olamide Head-to-Head at the Headies (2016)
Arguably the most notorious of them all in this category is the outburst of Olamide at the 10th edition of the Headies. The Next Rated Act is a section of the Headies award that honours new acts that have excelled in their artistry and manage to create influence doing so. In a year where Reekado Banks and Lil Kesh (each from Mavin Records and YBNL label respectively) dominated the airwaves, the coveted award that comes with an SUV went to Banks.
At first, all seemed cool until Olamide, boss of YBNL came on stage with the rest of his crew to support Adekunle Gold on his Best Alternative win and in the process lashed out at the award committee; defying their judgement and naming Lil Kesh their own Next Rated Act. He said:
“Lil Kesh is our own next rated artiste. F##k that sh@t! The streets ti take over. Every f##king single was a hit back-to-back. From ‘Lyrically’ to ‘Shoki’ to ‘Efejoku’. Ko ni dafun iya anybody”
Don Jazzy later went on to address the issue when he picked up the Special Recognition Award quoting that the car didn’t really mean anything to him, and in the process jokingly asked Olamide to come collect the star prize. That exactly didn’t go well as Olamide perceived it as added salt to injury. He later took to social media to threaten Don jazzy. The entire beef that kicked off the 2016 calendar later ended with Olamide apologizing for his actions.
Do you recall any gaffes that were not mentioned here? Be part of the eelive community and add your views in the comment section below.