The controversy created by the Headies Awards’ organisers
in the last edition of the event will likely not be erased in
the book of history as Nigerian artistes are still talking
about it four months after the event held.
Rave of the moment, Tekno, was undoubtedly one of the
biggest artistes in year 2015 and 2016, until the Headies
organisers shocked fans when they nominated the singer in
a category, ‘Next Rated Act’, supposedly for up and coming
artistes.
Tekno has been in the industry for over four years, churning
out hits upon hits, before he eventually rose to a deserving
limelight in 2016, after releasing songs like Duro, Wash,
Where, Pana, amongst other back-to-back hot singles he
delivered to ultimately place himself above other Nigerian
artistes.
Before Tekno aired his displeasure for the 2016 ‘Next Rated’
nod he was nominated, which eventually led to his
disqualification from the category, the organisers of
Headies explained why he was nominated only in that
category.
They organisers said the year under review to be between
July 2015 – June 2016, only songs released within this
period were eligible for nomination, the same period in
which Tekno released multiple hits. But dates of the
release of his biggest songs worked against him.
Tekno released arguably the biggest song of 2015, ‘Duro’ in
June 2015, a month before it would have been eligible for
consideration by the Headies organisers. And then his next
ground-breaking track, ‘Pana’ was released in July 2016; a
month after the window of consideration. This clearly
disqualified any of these songs from getting nods.
Tekno however did released other songs like ‘Wash’, ‘Where’
and ‘Maria’ within the period under review, but it’s was
argued that these songs aren’t big enough to get him more
nominations.
Tekno, who made his debut in 2013 with ‘Holiday’ featuring
Davido (a man with the biggest hit ‘If’ in Africa right now)
was also disqualified from the category he rejected for not
participating in any of the mandatory activities set aside for
nominees.
“Tekno has unfortunately not made himself available for any
of the mandatory activities, hence the committee’s decision
to effectively withdraw his nomination for this year,”
Headies awards organisers said in an official statement
released.
Despite strong criticisms from entertainment and music
lovers, ‘Next Rated’ category that was otherwise called
‘Tekno’s category’ by some fans, was won and appreciated
by another strong contender –Mr. Eazi who allegedly dissed
Tekno after his victory.
“My manager @mistameister said from day 1 “Mr eazi is a
brand” we had to either be like an Apple or a Tecno! Niche
or Mass! We choose Niche,” Mr. Eazi tweeted few days
after he won the coveted category, but later explained his
tweet wasn’t for anyone.
It’s been four months Headies Awards 2016 held at the Eko
Hotel Convention Centre and Nigerian singers are still airing
their dissatisfactions for ‘Tekno’s category’. Yung L who
just returned to the music scene after a brief hiatus from
the industry is the recent artiste to express his disgust for
nominating his colleague, Tekno as ‘Next Rated’ act at the
last edition of the awards.
Yung L said; “I don’t like talking about Nigerian awards
because I just think if you are using that as a yardstick for
your career you’re just going to be sad. It doesn’t make
sense, first of all, you nominated Tekno for Next Rated
category, Tekno is definitely not next rated, the boy is
overrated already, like he has passed that, so that didn’t
make sense. I think he saw that for himself, he didn’t want
to fight with anybody so he just gradually walked out, and I
respect that, It’s what he wanted.
“I think he felt that he was bigger than the award, if they
nominated him for other bigger categories, it would have
made sense, but next rated, no, it didn’t make any sense at
all. I think they need to understand what next rated is,
maybe they think because of the prize that comes with it is
supposed to be for certain big artistes, but next rated is
supposed to be the person that is next rated basically, not
somebody that is already gone past that level.”
Headies Awards organisers explained the ‘Next Rated’
category as a category eligible for any artiste without an
official album.
“Next Rated are officially unreleased artiste in the year
under review. This means, no matter how good or popular
your song may be, how many hit singles or how many good
music videos you may have, if you have not recorded and
released an official album, you are still eligible to be
nominated for that category. In the same vein, you may
start your career a year ago, as long as you have released
an album, will not the eligible for nomination in the Next
Rated Category.”
Tekno refused to allow the ‘Next Rated’ controversy weigh
him down, he keeps entertaining his fans with tuneful
songs, he signed an international deal reportedly worth $4m
with Sony Music and was on Friday, March 31, unveiled as
Pepsi brand ambassador.
Augustine Miles Kelechi aka Tekno has since moved on, he
may have lost the ‘Next Rated’ to Mr. Eazi, but he is
presently among the biggest artistes in Africa and has been
reviewed by pundits to be the next Nigerian artiste that will
conquer the world, just like Wizkid is currently doing.
Aramide, Humblesmith, YCee, Mr. Eazi and disqualified
Tekno were nominees at the 2016 Headies Awards’ ‘Next
Rated’ category.
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