5 things we noticed about the 12th edition nominees list

The highly anticipated list of nominees for the 2018 edition of the Headies is out.

This year's edition which is the 12th in the history of the awards covers an expansive 21 categories with 77 nominees catering for artistes from different genre of Nigerian music.

Superstars Davido, Wizkid, Simi and Olamide lead this years' nominations. The year under review covers from July 2016- December 2017.

Pulse Music has examined the categories and even though this is a solid list, we present to you five glaring observations from the list.

1. Brymo's Klitoris Album was released on May 9, 2016

Brymo has been in the news recently following the visuals of his 'Heya' single from the recently released 'Oso' album, so it is understandable that the organizers seek a need to fit him somewhere in their list.

The release date clearly falls outside the period of review and more shockingly is the fact that it had already been nominated in the 2016 edition under the Best R&B/Pop album category which it lost out to Kiss Daniel's 'New Era'.

2. No 'Soundcloud love?

For music lovers, the budding alternative scene made up of acts such as Odunsi, Santi, Tomi Thomas, Lady Donli and others probably represent the next era of Nigerian music superstars. Fans of these promising young acts must have been surprised that their Soundcloud faves did not make it to the nominees list.

However, on a closer look R&B singer Funbi, and Nonso Amadi, two acts prominent in the alte scene got nominated. Also, Mavin singer Johnny Drille got 3 nods and he stands as one of the best promising singers from the alternative scene.

3. A-Q and Boogey get nominated again

Rapper A-Q who has been doing his thing for quite a while now and it is great to see him getting mainstream nomination. A-Q is nominated in the Best Rap Album and Lyricist on the Roll categories.

The rapper was also nominated in two categories at the 2016 awards

Also nominated is Hip-Hop head favourite Boogey who released his first first solo LP, 'The Nouveau Niveau' project earlier this year He was nominated in The Lyricist On The Roll category.

Their nominations as well as that of Show Dem Camp for Best Rap Single highlight the solid representation of Nigerian rap music at the Headies.

4. How is Ric Hassani missing on the Alternative Artist list?

In a category that has songs like Aramide's 'Fun Mi Lowo' and Bantu's 'Lagos Barbie', its hard not to raise an eyebrow about the non-inclusion of one the best Alternative albums from last year in Ric Hassani's 'The African Gentleman' album. His single 'Only you' should have been considered for a nod.

5. Tekno is missing in major categories

Outside a single nomination in the Viewer's choice category, it is quite odd that in a period where Tekno released some of the biggest songs in the land, he only gets two nominations - 'Producer of the Year' and 'Headies Viewers Choice'.

Tekno's huge hit 'Pana' was released in July 2016 making it fall under the year in review, 'Rara' was released in December 2016.'Go' was in 2017. With quit a few hit singles under his belt within the year in review, Tekno could have gotten more nods than he got.