International awards; can we sustain the trend?

For quite some time now, Nigerian and South African artistes have been dominating the continental music platforms — as Ghana, Congo and East African countries follow closely.

However, top Nigerian artistes like Wizkid, P’Square, Davido and Don Jazzy are still fighting hard to remain on top of Africa’s entertainment scene.

From massive airplay, major events and continental awards, Nigerian stars have maintained the trend, almost blocking others from going to the top. In fact, it was a shocker for them when Kenya’s Sauti Sol emerged to be Africa’s top contenders in last year’s MTV Music Video awards.

What Nigerians have done is to make sure that once they get on top, they either stay there, or make sure their own do.

When artistes like D’Banj, 2Face Idibiaa and P’Square started dominating continental and international awards, they made sure a Nigerian name stayed on top.

Later, they let their younger artistes like Davido and Wizkid dominate the awards, too. While South African artistes have always had an advantage in almost all international and continental platforms, East Africa is yet to be dominant.

Looking at a country like Tanzania, before Diamond took over recently as the only artiste getting nominations in different continental and international awards, there was Rapper AY.

Starting with Kora awards to Channel O awards and to MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMAs), among others, AY dominated for a long time. He won some and lost others.

This opened the stage for artistes like Diamond, who has remained a constant contender in such awards, at least in the past three years. Last year, Diamond was the overall winner in the Channel O Music video awards, where he went home with three trophies.

Crossing over to Uganda, the artiste who has received the most continental recognition is Navio. Even if he doesn’t win much, Navio — a member of Klear Kut group — is usually a nominee in the Channel O awards and MAMAs, among others. Radio and Weasel also tried to keep up with the trend but only for a while. During their peak days, Radio and Weasel managed to get a nomination in the prestigious BET awards.

LITTLE RECOGNITION INTERNATIONALLY

Artistes like Chameleone, Bobi Wine and Bebe Cool could be little gods in Uganda, but have so far received very little recognition as far as continental awards are concerned.  

In Kenya, Nairobi hosted the 2009 MAMAs at Kasarani gymnasium. The Best Male award went to Nameless, while the Best Female award went to Amani. In these categories, Kenyan artistes were able to beat big stars like D’Banj, Fally Ipupa and 2Face Idibia. International stars like Wyclef Jean and Akon were present, too.

These awards gave Kenyan artistes a great platform. But what happened after the awards? Just a number of nominations in the Channel O awards followed.

Camp Mullah, P-Unit, Sauti Sol, Habida, among others, took over from Nameless and Amani. In fact, Camp Mullah went up so high and fast that it was easy to convince anyone that they would conquer Nigerian artistes and their shows.

They managed to get several nominations in Channel O, MTV and even the BET awards. Thanks to their break up, their potential of flying Kenya’s flag higher died just like that.

After getting a nomination in the 2010 MAMAs, P-Unit went ahead and won two titles in 2013 at the Channel O awards, making them among the biggest winners for the night.

Sauti Sol are now on the spot. In the past two years, they have been moving from one international award to the other. They have a great opportunity to keep Kenya in the international awards calendar, as they encourage others to come on board. But will they remain there or will they fizzle out like the rest?

According to Gabu, a member of P-Unit, many artistes who get to the international level as far as awards are concerned, simply don’t use the platform well.

“An international stage is the place to network and know artistes from other countries,” says Gabu. “These connections help you to record music with other artistes and keep your name out there.”

He also says that some artistes go back home and produce local music, instead of joining the international music production level.

“Yes, it’s important to do music for the local audience, but once you get an international platform, you have to keep up with that pace,” he says.