The 14th Headies award committee snubbed Chike, Adekunle Gold, Yemi Alade, Tiwa Savage, Davido, Naira Marley, and Burna Boy.
Chike received four nominations for ‘Best R&B Album’, ‘Best Vocal Performance (Male)’, ‘Headies Revelation’, and ‘Album of the Year’ but failed to take home any. It would have been a historic moment for the artiste if he had won. He was looking to pick his first Headies, and hopefully, that happens sometime soon.
Naira Marley also didn’t win in any of his four categories. He lost his nomination for ‘Street Hop Artiste’ to Mayorkun and his nomination for ‘Song of the Year to DJ Neptune. If he had won this year, it would have been his first Headies Award since these four were his first-ever nominations.
Meanwhile, Adekunle Gold failed to grab a Headie for the fourth time in a row. His nominated categories included ‘Best Pop Album’ and ‘Album of the Year’ for his highly acclaimed 2020 album, ‘Afro Pop Vol 1’. He also received a nomination for ‘Headies Songwriter of the Year’ for Davido’s smash hit ‘1 Million’.
Some of the biggest names in the country, and across Africa, also failed to pick up any awards. Yemi Alade, Tiwa Savage, Davido, and Burna Boy all received more than one nomination each but didn’t win in any category. They were also visibly absent from the ceremony, especially Yemi Alade, who was supposed to perform.
Their failure to pick up any awards may be linked directly to the fact that they didn’t show up to the 14th Headies awards ceremony. The organisers of the prestigious awards earlier announced that they hold the right to award the second winner in any category if the original winner failed to show up to the event.
They released a statement saying, “The Headies organisers reserve the rights to award the nominee with the second-highest vote in any category at the awards event, if the nominee with the highest vote did not RSVP or attend the event, except if a pre-recorded acceptance speech was recorded.”
Burna Boy and Yemi Alade each picked up different awards in the last edition, with Burna going home with three wins and Yemi Alade with one. On the other hand, Davido and Tiwa Savage’s last victories at the Headies happened in 2018. Davido won three awards that night, including ‘Artiste of the Year’, while Tiwa Savage took home the ‘Best Collabo’ award.
The Headies held virtually for the first time due to the prevailing global COVID-19 pandemic. It will go down in history as the most engaging iteration yet, having broken social media engagement records.
We can’t wait to see what Chike, Adekunle Gold, Yemi Alade, Tiwa Savage, Davido, Naira Marley, and Burna Boy will create following this major snub, but we know it will be brilliant!