Headies 2019 Predictions: Which Of Your Faves Are Getting Nominated?

2018 was a truly great year for Nigerian music. From the usual suspects doling out monster hits to a new wave of talents bursting onto the scene, it’s particularly hard to select just a handful of Nigerian artists deserving of accolades — but that won’t stop us from trying.

Falz with one of his Headies awards Photo: Falz)

As May approaches, The Headies draw nearer, as do their hotly contested list of nominees. We at Konbini are excited to see which of our faves will bag nominations — so excited, in fact, that we’ve decided to predict which songs and artists could appear in the five biggest categories.

So, from Odunsi The Engine’s game-changing debut album, rare. making an appearance in the ‘Album of the Year’ category, to Chinko Ekun’s anthemic hit, “Able God” showing up for ‘Song of the Year’, here are our estimations for this year’s Headies.

Album of the Year

2018 saw the release of some truly fantastic projects by Nigerian artists. The year opened strong with Burna Boy’s magnum opus, Outside, and former ‘Album of the Year winner’, Kizz Daniel wrapped things off with his aptly titled sophomore LP, No Bad Songz.

In between, we had Seun Kuti’s Grammy-nominated Black Times, Adekunle Gold’s sophomore project, About 30, as well as two outstanding debut albums from largely divergent artists: Odunsi and Mayorkun with rare. and The Mayor of Lagos respectively.

(Photo: Odunsi The Engine/Instagram)

Song of the Year

Although Starboy’s “Soco” was definitely the most impactful of the label’s 2018 collaborations, other allegiances, such as “Able God”, proved that lesser-known acts can still make a smash hit. Then we had 2Baba, who was still able to drop a song as great as “Amaka” two decades into his career.

While teamwork does indeed make the dream work, some solo tracks still managed to completely blow us away, particularly Davido‘s romantic single, “Assurance”; Teni’s breakout hit, “Askamaya”; and Burna Boy’s career-defining anthem, “Ye”.

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Artist of the Year

Since the release of Outside, Burna Boy has cemented himself as one of the biggest names in Nigerian music right now, joining the likes of former ‘Artist of the Year’ winner, Davido, as well as afropop’s undisputed queen, Tiwa Savage.

As for the other big names who will very likely make the cut, we’re predicting Wizkid, who utterly dominated 2018 with career-best features; Olamide, who dropped a multitude of hits; and Kizz Daniel, who released one of the year’s strongest albums.

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Next Rated

The ‘Next Rated’ category is one of the most fun to predict, as we get to estimate which of our favourite new artists is going to soar in the years to come. Obviously, Teni, 2018’s biggest breakout star, leads the category, along with Peruzzi and Zlatan.

Given his impressive trifecta of singles last year, we’re pretty hopeful we’ll get to see Santi on the nominees list, and we wouldn’t be surprised if he was joined by Mavin Records’ Ladipoe, a brilliant rapper with a very promising future ahead.

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Producer of the Year

In the past year, we had the iconic producer, Spellz — who helmed 2018 bangers like Tiwa’s “Lova Lova” and Teni’s “Askamaya” — go head to head with a bunch of new afropop beatsmiths: Northboi, Killertunes, Kel P and Speroach Beatz.

With monster hits such as Starboy’s “Soco”, “Olamide’s “Motigbana”, Burna Boy’s “Gbona” and Davido’s “Assurance” to their names respectively, we’re sure these gifted newcomers will be joining Spellz in the ‘Producer of the Year’ category.

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