Let’s face it, it is not easy putting together an awards show for 11 straight years.
It is even more difficult when you have to do it in Nigeria, and for a set of people dominated by those who, apart from making music, only probably care about the size of their bling.
That is why I think it’s just fair to commend Ayo Animashaun and his folks at HipTV for giving Nigeria The Headies. Nothing in NIGERIA can be perfect. That’s the reality we have dug ourselves into.
While The Headies crew deserve praise for running arguably the biggest music awards show in Nigeria for more than a decade, they deserve stick for failing to get it right year after year. It seems, to me at least, that they are finding new ways to outdo their shameful outing at every new edition.
READ: Why can’t the Headies ever start on time?
Thursday night was a feast of shame. We have all gotten used to the event never starting on time. The delays would have been pardonable if they lasted just minutes. But a typical Headies show hardly starts until two hours after advertised. We are used to that now.
But what we aren’t used to is the embarrassment caused by award presenters standing on stage, endlessly belting out the names of winners hoping for the awkwardness in the air to fade.
Despite the damage control Bros Keke attempted, it is clear for all to see that this was more than artistes having shows to attend to during the yuletide. This was a statement. A conscious stay-away.
Considering what happened last year (nah, it was January 1st), can it be mere coincidence that no artiste from either the YBNL nation or the Mavin dynasty attended? When an awards ceremony begins to witness mass boycotts, something has to be wrong somewhere.
Headies 2016: The complete winners list
It’s hard to fault the level of musical performances that The Headies dishes us year after year but even those aren’t enough to mask the show of disorganisation that it displays.
The show is forced on TV when evidently, the organisers are incompetent of delivering a live show. The confused awards presenters as well as the numerous sound, video and music miscues are evidences that the show stepped into live broadcast quite prematurely.
Ayo Animashaun should save the event by seeking producers who not only know how to put a brilliant show together but also make sure that people don’t regret staying up late into the night to watch a live broadcast on TV.
My biggest embarrassment came when the organisers began bringing in extra chairs because they obviously didn’t know how many people they were expecting. Bringing in chairs live on TV in 2016?
In my event-attending career, I cannot honestly recollect a show that ended as lifeless as this. People had had enough by the time Flavour mounted the stage to close what was a forgettable morning.
Headies boss, Animashaun has done great for the music industry. But it is high time he realised that his baby needs CPR. And fast.