14th Headies Awards: The Albums that got nominated and predictions to Win

The most prestigious Music Awards ceremony in Nigeria – The Headies Awards – announced the nominations for it’s 14th edition on the eve of yesterday as it saw different artists get recognized for the amazing art they put out during the Headies musical year, “July 2019 – September 2020”. Various categories with nominations for Records, Music Videos, Music Production, Music Video Directions and song writing.

We are Album Talks, so we would be focusing on the album categories, the respective albums that were nominated in those categories and those we feel should take home the awards.

Here are the categories recognizing albums in this year’s Headies Awards Ceremony:

• Album of the year
• Best Rap Album
• Best Alternative Album
• Best R&B Album
• Best Pop Album

Album of the Year

This is one of the biggest and most sought after categories of the awards ceremony. Unsurprisingly so, as it acknowledges the outright best album of the entire year irrespective of genre differences. The nominated albums for the “ALBUM OF THE YEAR” are:

• “APOLLO” – FIREBOY DML
• “AFRICAN GIANT” – BURNA BOY
• “AFROPOP, VOL. 1” – ADEKUNLE GOLD
• “BOO OF THE BOOLESS” – CHIKE
• “YELLOW” – BRYMO

Prediction: All of these albums are definitely deserving of the nomination but Burna Boy’s “African Giant“ obtained a Grammys nomination and possesses that extra quality which should land Burna Boy the Headies award for this category.

Best Rap Album

This category recognizes the best Albums released with a greater portion of it’s theme being the Rao/Hip-Hop Genre. The Nominees for the “BEST RAP ALBUM” category are:

• “CULT” — PAYBAC IBORO
• “GOD’S ENGINEERING” — AQ
• “ILLY CHAPO X” — ILLBLISS
• “THE ERIGMA II” — ERIGGA
• “YPSZN2” — PSYCHO YP

Prediction: AQ’s “God’s Engineering” is the Best Rap album that dropped this year. The argument of AQ himself being the overall rap MVP act of the year could well be raised. God’s Engineering should deservedly claim this award. We riot if it doesn’t. Just kidding… Or am I?

Best Alternative Album

This category appreciates musical albums with alternative genres, including highlife, ballads, afrohouse, afro-folk, Alte, Electronic and More. The Nominees for the “BEST ALTERNATIVE ALBUM” are:

• “LUCID” — ASA
• “PIONEERS” — DRB LASGIDI
• “ROOTS” — THE CAVEMEN
• “THE LIGHT” — BEZ
• “YELLOW” — BRYMO

Prediction: This is the most difficult category amongst the album nominating categories. This is because all of the albums nominated were amazing but most of all, they adhered to their respective theme perfectly. Personally, I’d vote for DRB Lasgidi’s “Pioneers” but Brymo has won the best alternative Album once before and should probably take this home too.

Best R&B Album

This awards category appreciates albums that includes music with majorly Soul/RnB elements present. The Nominees for the “BEST R&B ALBUM” are:

• “BOO OF THE BOOLESS” — CHIKE
• “CELIA” — TIWA SAVAGE
• “I LIKE GIRLS WITH TROBUL” — SARZ X WURLD
• “KING” — PRAIZ
• “LAUGHTER, TEARS AND GOOSEBUMPS” — FIREBOY DML

Prediction: This category has got the genres all mixed up by the Awards Ceremony bodies, in my opinion. Having little RnB elements doesn’t make an Album a full-on RnB project. Tiwa Savage’s “Celia” contained a higher proportion of Pop elements, the same could be said for Sarz and WurlD’s “ILGWT” and Fireboy’s “LTG“. This is a vote-based category, so I expect Fireboy’s “Laughter, Tears and Goosebumps” to win this because it’s a nationwide favourite and it’s quality is actually deserving of the award. It is one of the best debut albums to drop in recent history too.

Best Pop Album

This category applauds the best Pop albums released during the musical year in review. Also one of the most sought after categories, seeing as Afropop is unarguably the biggest Genre in the country at the moment. The nominees for the “BEST POP ALBUM”:

• “AFRICAN GIANT” — BURNA BOY
• “APOLLO” — FIREBOY DML
• “AFROPOP, VOL. 1” — ADEKUNLE GOLD
• “A GOOD TIME” — DAVIDO
• “WOMAN OF STEEL” — YEMI ALADE

Prediction: Burna Boy’s “African Giant” got world recognition when it was nominated at the last Grammys. It would be absolutely criminal for it not to bag this award.

Do you have different predictions in mind for the winners of these Award Categories?? Be sure to drop your suggestions in the comments.