It was a night of surprises and big thrills at the much anticipated 2011 edition of The Headies as one of Africa’s biggest exports 2face Idibia emerged the biggest winner of the night scooping three plaques including two out of the big three awards!
The 36-year-old walked away with the awards for the Best R&B/Pop Album, Album of the Year and biggest award of the night Artiste of the Year. With ‘The Unstoppable International Edition’ released in 2010, 2face edged out other contenders like D’banj, M.I, Darey, Dr. SID, Duncan Mighty and Asa. It was all love though as even Don Jazzy climbed the stage to congratulate Idibia.
The highest nominee of the 2011 awards, Chocolate City’s Ice Prince walked away with two awards being the Best Rap Single and Song of the Year for the 2010 smash hit ‘Oleku’. R&B king Darey and pop singer Dr. Sid were also double winners; the former won the awards for Best R&B single (The way you are) and Recording of the Year while the Mo’Hits crew member bagged his first ever awards for Best Pop Single and Revelation of the Year.
Pop sensation Wizkid won the Next Rated Award beating other contenders Tiwa Savage, oLamide and Ice Prince to win the coveted prize of a brand Hyundai Sonata! While many were surprised to see Kennis Music R&B singer Capital F.E.M.I win the award for the Best Vocal Performance (Male) over Darey, Bez and Timi Dakolo, it wasn’t much of a surprise to see veteran rapper Modenine pick up the award for Lyricist on the Roll for the sixth time in a row.
The performances however varied; R&B singer Waje who won the award for Best Vocal Performance (Female) dazzled the crowd as she performed her ‘So inspired’ single along with Muna. M.I was also spectacular on stage; even though BrymO and Flavour where missing when he performed ‘Action Film’ and ‘Number one’, the rapper still got massive cheers from the crowd. It was however the Afro Juju king, Sir Shina Peters that had the best performance of the night as he got the crowd standing and singing to his 90’s classics…
Sound Sultan also surprised guests when he brought on stage comedienne Princess and Eniola Badmus (Gbo gbo bigz girls in the Jenifa movie) to perform his hit song ‘Orobo’. It was nice to see Omawumi get back on stage after a hiatus as she gave a wonderful account of herself on stage. The singer who wore a two-piece lace attire, gave one of the nights best sets, delivering like a maestro that she now is, her ‘If you ask me’ single, backed by a 10-piece man band and supported by drama sketches by Gbenga Adeyinka and Tomi of ‘Tinsel’.
The biggest shock of the night was when Mo’Hits’ Dr. SID fumbled his performance on stage. The pop singer didn’t quite cue with the DJ who played the wrong performance CD. The two time Headie winner started out for a few minutes then stopped abruptly as he apologized ‘I’ll come back guys’. Sid must have forgotten that his mic was on when he cursed out while at backstage ‘F***k’. Maybe if the singer had opted to a live band performance just like every other performer of the night had done and excelled at, the slip up might have been avoided.
The night’s hosts – eLDee and Rita Dominic unfortunately and surprisingly, performed below expectations. But eLDee occasionally managed to put his act together while Rita, a truly brilliant actress and performer goofed all the way, often upsetting her lines with poor attempts at stand-up or poorly delivered banters with eLDee who kept puffing a cigar. Rita Dominic may go into record as the worst co-host the prestigious awards show has ever had. Thankfully, there were intermittent voice-overs from backstage guiding guests through the night’s event.
