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Wizkid or Davido: Who would be artiste of the year?

Every major music award organizer in Nigeria agreed on one thing in 2016, Wizkid deserved the award for the Artiste of the year.

Wizkid vs Davido

Every major music award organizer in Nigeria agreed on one thing in 2016, Wizkid deserved the award for the Artiste of the year. It is quite easy to figure out that it was on the basis of his collaboration with Drake that they reached this conclusion.

The song, on which the two collaborated, One Dance, was a major hit home and abroad. It even made Drake's Views album, which was one of the most widely circulated albums around the world, for last year. To cut it short, the success of the song broke through the glass ceiling as far as Nigerian music is concerned. It was no ordinary feat for a Nigerian artiste.

In the world music market, One Dance was perhaps the biggest 2016 song involving a Nigerian artiste. But within the borders of the Nigerian music industry, another song was number one. Tekno's Pana by any account was the biggest song in Nigeria for 2016. Some said it was the national anthem of the year, and I totally agree.

Tekno recorded an unprecedented success with the song yet he didn't stop there. He went for releasing hit, to more hits. He was dropping hits like you're changing clothes.  Two of his songs Pana and Diana could have made the shortlist for song of the year, if possible. All these summed up to make Tekno a favourite for the Artiste of the Year Award.

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In fact, going by the norm, Ceasar would have enjoyed the Headies award more than he did, because Weezy might not have been there at all. Tekno would have been the one on the stage to deliver an acceptance speech. The award for Artiste of The Year has always been awarded to the artiste with the biggest songs in the year and technically, Tekno was the man for the award, in 2016.

But something adventitious happened. The industry experienced a new orientation. Nigerian music grew its audience to accommodate the world. While this is pleasing, it comes with a dilemma of how we would judge our artistes from there. Would it mean that the exploits of artistes on the international stage would be the new standard for awarding them?

The twist in the way we judged our artistes in 2016 was a bit subliminal, but in 2017, everyone is eager to know who would emerge, artiste of the year and the judging criteria.

The quiz is becoming more pressing, with the activities of Wizkid and Davido this year. Wizkid is climbing higher on the international stage with Daddy Yo, Come Closer, African, Bad Girl and his featured appearances but in Nigeria, Davido's IF and now, FALL, are  the  leading songs.

If the race continues like this, there would be enough songs to go around, enough money would be made as well, fans might even struggle to choose a favourite song at the close of the year, but in the end, the headache would be for the award organizers to make the right arguments on their powerful table, and hopefully, in the end they'd settle for the deserving choice of artiste of the year, which already looks to be one of Wizkid or Davido.Written by Ibironke Oluwatobi

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