By Osagie Alonge and Olamide Jasanya
The executive producer of Hip hop world awards, also known as The Headies, answers the most pertinent questions about this year’s event, in this rare interview you’ll truly enjoy…
The Headies is rated as the number one music awards in Nigeria. How did you achieve that?
I would say God has been very good, I work with a fantastic and selfless team and we put in a lot of hard work. We also have a deep knowledge of what we do. I have worked at the back stage of many major awards outside of Nigeria and seen many across the World except In Asia and Australia, we know how it works. Ultimately, the glory goes to God for making everything count.
Have you been satisfied with the growth so far?
It’s been great, sometimes really satisfying, other times very disappointing, more or less a roller coaster kind of ride. Nigeria is a difficult terrain to do anything. We have some of the most sophisticated people in the world here, so the standards are high, you better come correct or you’re out.
Were you satisfied with the just concluded awards?
No, but I am happy with our performance.
How do you mean?
I have never been satisfied with any of the seven award shows we’ve had. I believe we can do better in a lot of ways even with all the limitations we have as a country if things would be done properly and at the right time. I can’t really talk to you from the insider’s perspective but I will shed light on some areas. Venue for example is an issue, only a hand full of brands can afford to pay a venue like Eko Hotel for 5 days. Most of us struggle to do two days, a day before and the day of the show. They are the most expensive venue in the world per square meter compared to venues like the Staple Centre in LA , Madison Square Garden in New York, Wembley Arena in London, O2 Arena in London, Royal Albert Hall in the London, Sandton Convention Center and Coca-cola dome in South Africa, I can go on and on. Our budget does not support the number of days we require to do proper set up, rehearsal, dress rehearsals, dry run and the main show. Have you seen Michael Jackson’s This Is It? That was rehearsals they packaged and edited. That’s how to plan a modern day show.
Are you saying you could not have done better given your own limitations and resources?
Definitely not. I am our biggest critic, ask people who know me. I said I have never been satisfied earlier but if you are marking our script against the reality of the day, we have done extremely well. This year we had six events. A press conference, nominees’ party in Abuja and Lagos, Veterans’ Night, Yellow Carpet and the main awards. I think we deserve a lot of respect and encouragement. We have been bringing in our sound guys from South Africa in the last four years. This year was the best in terms of lighting for performance. We had to fly in experts from Los Angeles and Atlanta. It looks fantastic on TV. Each year has been a different experience.
This year, you started late again, you seem to have a reputation for that.
What time did you get to the venue? This year, we were ready, we even wrote guests must be seated by 8:45 on the invite. The main show was meant to start by 9pm. That was the time we had to go live for the red carpet. By 9:45 when I went to my room to change and looked down from the 10th floor, people had just started coming to the venue. There are so many differences between a music awards and a concert. For a concert you can put any small or upcoming artiste or a comedian on stage and start the show, for an award show, it’s totally different, there are presenters you have to literally drag out of the yellow carpet, there are performers and nominees’ that want to show off their gorgeous dresses and you need the first half of these important people back stage to start the show. Unfortunately, the venue we have used in the last three years has the toilets outside the auditorium, so you can’t close the gate and control your crowd for a minute. You can’t tell your guests they can’t go to the toilets for the first one hour because they came for your show.
We were ready to start the show at the appropriate time but I’m sure even you came late because only about 10 per cent of the entire audience got there that early. We may need to find a way around this. To avoid starting late, we got rooms for some people involved in the first half of the show, yet it was a hell of a job to get them down to the venue. At the end of the day, everyone says it’s the organizers but it’s part of the job and we are happy to be criticized. Stones are thrown at fruit bearing trees.
But you got some good reviews?
Frankly, I cannot keep tabs on what everybody says about us, thankfully, The Headies is so big that everyone talks about it. We do our own internal appraisal and I pay a lot of attention to that. I try to read as much as I can, I have seen very constructive criticism and very bad ones, some based on poor judgements, I respect opinions a lot though sometimes I don’t agree.
Could you tell us about The Veterans’ night?
This year, we decided to honour the Veterans of Nigerian music industry, people who did exceptionally well in the 70s, 80s and 90s, a few legends and icons. The experience to me was Mind blowing and very fulfilling. The veterans came out in numbers, from Felix Liberty to Onyeka Onwenu, Shina Peters to Fatai Rolling Dollar. We spoke with Ebenezer Obey, Ras Kimono, Orlando Julius Ekemode, Laolu Akins. All these great artistes of their generation came to the Grand Ball Room of Eko Hotel. I would do it again.
And there was the ‘help the children’ project which is equally noble. What are your strategies to achieving this with an annual music awards?
The idea is to make the artistes influence their fans in contributing to saving the future of street kids. We want food and clothing from these children. The figures are amazing, one out of every five Nigerian children die before they turn five. More than 90% of the deaths are avoidable. We would have failed in a way if we do not use the image and the might of the brand to solve some serious social issues. We do not want anyone to give us money, we want clothes, used and new, food stuff, school books, toys and even mobile toilets. All of these things don’t have to go through us. We are working with a few homes and interested people can send stuff directly to them.
The Headies yellow carpet pulls all the big names in the entertainment industry year in, year out, how do you do it?
We feel privileged that people identify with what we do. It simply the grace of God. I don’t have an explanation for that. We put in our part which is the hard work and God does the remaining.
Some of your winners did not turn up for the awards this year, why?
To begin with, there’s no award ceremony all over the world that all the winners turn up every year. The reasons may vary. You may need to ask the ones that were not present, I cannot answer for them. It is sad that some artistes feel it is an embarrassment to be nominated and not win an award. It think it boils down to exposure and state of mind.
Could you shed lights on your screening process for nominees and how winners are picked for the awards?
We call for entry to review a calendar year, collate music works released in the year in review and send to the jury for screening. The lack of proper release date and such music monitoring system like soundscan does not make the job easy but we do it anyway. The jury is headed by veteran DJ Jimmy JATT and made up of nonpartisan professionals in the music industry. They start by putting all the songs, albums and video in the appropriate category before applying the criteria for each category. The job is hectic and tedious. The details are much and can be found on (www.theheadies.com) our website.
How much would you say it cost to put the awards together this year?
$1.5million
Apart from DJ Jimmy JATT, who else is on the Headies jury?
Olumide Iyanda, Steve Ayorinde but we don’t want to make public others.
Why was Femi Kuti missing in action, after you had announced he’d be performing and receiving an award?
We expected him…only Femi can answer that. I think Felabration played a part.
How do you select performers?
You must have released one of the biggest songs in the year in review to perform.
What was responsible for Burna Boy’s (now famous) fall?
He didn’t rehearse on stage like others did. You have to be familiar with the stage to have a good show but artistes sometimes take it for granted and he wasn’t that lucky. In other circumstances, we would not even allow him to perform but he was in as a joint winner of Rookie competition, alongside Dammy Krane.
This year, you had at least three sponsors. What does that mean to you? Are things getting better in Nigeria in terms of sponsorship?
To me, it is a testimony of acceptance and I am saying this with all sense of humility and responsibility. I also believe we have added value to the brands in terms of helping them to achieve set objectives. Sponsorship is not Father Christmas. You must be able to deliver results that can be measured for the brands and it is a lot of hard work. This I believe we have done satisfactorily. MTN has been wonderful on the project, they have driven entertainment and have used viable brands to enrich the lives of Nigerians. No wonder they’re number one, it takes a lot to see beyond the obvious. This year Verve and Lucozade joined the revolution and it’s only the beginning. This is a movement and it will take some time to dawn on doubting Thomas’. Cool World sponsored the Lagos nominees’ party, Hyundai gave us the car for Next Rated, it is bigger than us. Yes, there will be ups and downs but we are definitely going somewhere huge without partners and very soon, things will begin to take a different positive dimension. We may not be there yet in terms of figures, the industry is still young and The Grammies that has become a yardstick of measuring our performance is 55 years old.
What should we expect from The Headies in the nearest future?
Magic! Simple put. Out of the world experience. It’s only about to begin. God willing!
