The Recent Outburst by Artists on Improper Recognition by Award Platforms | Justifiable or Not?

The Recent Outburst by Artists on Improper Recognition by Award Platforms | Justifiable or Not?

In recent times, you may have noticed or seen some of our most beloved and overwhelmingly talented and amazing artistes cry out in frustration and disgust at the way award nomination platforms are mistreating them. We observed how Wizkid’s award for the ‘Best African Act 2016’ was apparently “snatched” from him and given to Tanzanian artiste – Alikiba. Read up HERE.

Tekno, feels he is underappreciated.

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Solidstar wrote a very lengthy and thought-provoking statement on his Instagram page about how he and other artistes are constantly being underrecognized for the effort they put towards our effervescent music industry.

Swagga Lomor a.k.a Yung6ix was not left out of the venting too because he wasn’t even recognized at all. He attributed the cause to Tribalism.

For some of us that don’t know, an “Award” is a mark of recognition given in honor of an achievement. The undiluted fact of the matter remains that our artistes deserve to be recognized for their efforts and contribution(s) to the growth of this industry. And as you can tell, this recognition means alot to some of them and most importantly, to their fans who are ever so passionate about the growth and status of their favorites. Awards can also be seen as a source of motivation to individuals; pushing them to achieve even more in their related fields (in this case – music).
I personally do not know the processes and structure these award platforms use to create their lists and I am certainly not in the business of questioning their credibility either, but one must recognize that there is an issue that needs to be addressed asap. Even if we tried to push these complaints aside all we want, we might run into alot of problems in the future if these issues persist.

P.S: We all remember the incident between Olamide and Donjazzy earlier this year right? 

Taking into consideration that we can not satisfy everyone, I believe as an industry we should consider the following options to minimize future occurrences:

• Award platforms should thoroughly sort for accumulated metadata from reliable platforms, media houses and fan responses on the performance of artistes and their work. These will enable them streamline and make better decisions as to who gets nominated and for what category.

• The artistes too also have some work to do. Some of these nominations are pretty competitive especially when the spots available are limited to 4, in some cases. So if your name is not included this year or whatever your case might be, it might just mean the best of the best occupied the available nominations list. So don’t get discouraged so fast. Seek for a meaningful and civilized dialogue with the organizers. In as much as freedom of expression exists, calling out a professional award body gives you attention, it doesn’t really solve any problem.

• Also, the award platforms need to make their award shows as robust as possible. By robust, I mean they should strive very hard to imbibe the culture of inclusiveness and make the nominee’s list as unbiased as possible so that it resonates with every age group, culture, and sex.

It is, however, worthy to note that “The Headies” and “MTV EMA” has offered a rationale behind their nominee’s list/winner – in the case of MTV EMA. You can read up on that from their individual platforms if you wish.
Would you, in your own opinion, consider the complaints of these artistes “Justifiable or Not”? I would absolutely love to hear from you. Leave your comments in the comment section and I will engage with you.
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