The Headies Awards is Coming to America, Launches a New Digital Artist of the Year Category
If you tried to wrap your head around the impact Afrobeat’s music is having in the digital space, you’d be dizzy for days. With music streaming and social media platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon Music, YouTube Music, Tidal, Instagram, and Tik Tok showcasing every facet of our favorite entertainers and both their personal and professional lives – you’d get lost in the rabbit hole trying to read all of the comments and like all of the videos. Not to mention the diverse playlists and variety of complicated metrics used to measure everything from most viewed, most played, most streamed, and the list goes on and on.
Without getting lost in the digital space – there are no and’s, if’s, or but’s about it. Afrobeat’s artists have a digital footprint so deep into the inner core of the music industry worldwide that even Billboard teamed up with Afro Nation and launched the new US Afrobeats Songs Chart in March of this year. It was a major development in a movement that started decades ago in Africa.
In fact, 15 years ago, Nigerian Entertainment Entrepreneur Ayo Animashaun founded The Headies Awards. “What inspired me to create The Headies Awards was the need to fill an important gap and be the voice of a generation in the culture that we represented. There wasn’t an award show that understood the urban contemporary, pop culture that Afrobeats was bringing mainstream. We had reasons to interface with young talented artists and they were not being represented and these guys were like the future – we had to step in there and create what was missing.”
Over the years, the love for Afrobeats music spread around the globe like a wildfire, lighting up music charts, streaming platforms, and playlists worldwide. This year the 5 Afrobeats artists made the cut for one of the 15th Annual Headies Awards’ newest categories Digital Artist of the Year.
This year, for the first time in history and a first of its kind, The Headies Awards is being transported to America for the biggest showcase of raw Nigerian Afrobeats talent. With the sounds of over 100 artists from south, east and west Africa, they are coming to America for the biggest showcase of Afrobeats and Afrofusion to ever hit American soil.
“It was the need to export our culture,” Animashaun adds. “We’re the ones that need to just do more in terms of showing the world who we are. We are the ones that need to showcase what we have on a global scale. We want the world to see, and they won’t see in our backyard, so we have decided to expand our scope.”
Wizkid, Davido, Burnaboy, CKay, Joeboy, and Rema proved that they were the ones bringing the cows to the barn with over 57,995,217 million collective streams on Spotify, the #1 music streaming platform in the world. The Afrobeats stars also collectively boast over 58.1 million Instagram followers and 933.65 million YouTube Music subscribers around the globe.
The Nominees for Digital Artist of the Year:
Davido
Nigerian singer, and songwriter Davido blends traditional African elements with mainstream pop. Davido won the Next Rated award in 2012 at The Headies after releasing “Dami Duro,” the second single from his debut studio album Omo Baba Olowo. In 2018, Davido took home the award for Artiste of the Year at the Headies. In 2019, his International hit “Fall” became the longest charting Nigerian pop song in Billboard history. “Fall” has received over 60 million streams on Spotify as of August 2021.
24.8 million followers on IG @davido
Spotify monthly listeners: 4,730,144
YouTube: 3.1 million subscribers
Wizkid
Nigerian singer and songwriter Wizkid is one of the most prolific Afrobeat artists. By February of 2021, Wizkid was the most streamed Nigerian artist of all time on Spotify, with over 3.4 billion streams across all credits. His 2016 collaboration with Drake on the hit single “One Dance” topped charts in over 14 different countries and reached number one on the US Billboard Hot 100. He was the first Afrobeats artist to appear in the Guinness World Records after the song broke multiple records.
15 million followers on IG @wizkido
Spotify monthly listeners: 8,234,914
Youtube: 2.5 million subscribers
Burna Boy
Regarded as one of the most talented, versatile, and consistent artists in the Nigerian music industry, Afro-fusion singer, songwriter, and performing artist Burna Boy won the Best World Music Album at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards for his fifth studio album Twice as Tall. His hit single “Ye” earned around 11 million streams over seven months across major U.S. streaming platforms. “Ye” also won “Song of the Year” at the 2019 Headies Awards.
11.2 million followers on IG @burnaboygram
Spotify monthly listeners: 18,186, 788
YouTube: 2.95 million subscribers
Rema
Nigerian musician and singer Rema rose to stardom with the release of the song “Dumebi” followed by “Iron Man.” In 2020, Rema performed on stage at The Headies Awards and took home the award for “Next Rated” – an award typical given to the country’s most promising act. In May of 2021, Rema announced he will be calling his sound “Afrorave,” a subgenre of Afrobeats with influences from Arabian and Indian music.
3.6 million followers on IG @heisrema
Spotify monthly listeners: 9,457,660
YouTube: 1.74 million subscribers
JoeBoy
Nigerian singer and songwriter Joeboy is a leading Afrobeats star in the genre of Afro Pop, and R&B. He is best known for his hits “Beginning” in 2019, “Nobody” and “Sip (Alcohol) 2021, and his feature on CKay’s “Love Nwantiti.” The music video for “Baby” surpassed 31 million views on YouTube.
2.2 million followers on IG @joeboyofficial
Spotify monthly listeners: 2,042,955
YouTube: 920K subscribers
CKay
Nigerian singer and songwriter CKay is an Afrobeats star known for his International hit “Love Nwantiti (Ah Ah Ah) released in 2019. It was the first African song to surpass 400 million streams on Spotify and debuted at No. 1 on the first Billboard U.S. Afrobeats Songs Chart.
1.3 million followers on IG
Spotify monthly listeners: 15,342,756
YouTube: 3.6 million subscribers
For more information on The Headies Awards, visit theheadies.com.
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About the Author
Dr. Jerry Doby Editor-in-Chief of The Hype Magazine, Media and SEO Consultant, Journalist, Ph.D. and retired combat vet. 2023 recipient of The President's Lifetime Achievement Award. Partner at THM Media Group. Member of the U.S. Department of Arts and Culture, the United States Press Agency and ForbesBLK.
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