The 17th Headies Awards took center stage on Sunday night at the famous Eko Convention Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos. After being hosted in Atlanta, USA for two years, the prestigious African music awards ceremony finally returned to Nigeria.
This year’s event had a powerful theme: “Back to Base” and “Apologetically African,” celebrating the best in African music between April 1, 2023, and July 31, 2024.
However, despite the excitement, the ceremony was marred by technical difficulties and poor time management, which caused the event to end abruptly. As a result, several major categories did not have winners announced during the live show.
Still, many deserving artists received honors for their outstanding work across different genres and regions of Africa.
Let’s take a closer look at everything that happened.
The 17th edition introduced two new categories:
- Soundtrack of the Year – honoring the best music made for movies and TV.
- Best Performer (Live) – celebrating the best live music performances.
These additions show how much the awards are expanding to recognize all aspects of music.
1. Top Awards
- Best Recording of the Year: Tems – Burning
- Best Vocal Performance (Male): Lojay – Billions
- Best Vocal Performance (Female): Liya – I’m Done
- Next Rated Award: Odumodublvck
- Rookie of the Year: Zerry DL
- Song of the Year: Asake – Lonely At The Top
- Songwriter of the Year: Chimamanda Pearl Chukwuma for Qing Madi’s Vision
2. Music Video and Street-hop Categories
- Music Video of the Year: Director Pink – Egwu
- Best Street-hop Artiste: Mohbad – Ask About Me
3. Afrobeats and Rap Categories
- Afrobeats Single of the Year: Flavour – Big Baller
- Afrobeats Album of the Year: Rema – HEIS
- Best Rap Single: Shallipopi & Odumodublvck – Cast
4. Production and Digital Recognition
- Producer of the Year: London – Ozeba
- Digital Artiste of the Year: Davido
5. Viewer’s Favorite
- Viewers’ Choice Award: Chike ft. Mohbad – Egwu
6. Special Recognition
- Soundtrack of the Year:
Abbey Wonder & TCJ for A Tribe Called Judah — the award celebrated Funke Akindele’s groundbreaking movie.
7. Regional African Winners
- Best East African Artiste: Juma Jux (Tanzania)
- Best Central African Artiste: Innoss’B (DRC)
Due to the early closure of the event, winners were not announced for several important categories, such as:
- Best Collaboration
- Best R&B Single
- Best Rap Album
- Best Inspirational Single
- Artiste of the Year
- Album of the Year
- Best West African Artiste of the Year
- Best North African Artiste of the Year
- Best South African Artiste of the Year
- Best Performer (Live)
- Lyricist on the Roll
Fans and artists are still waiting for an official update from the organizers regarding these categories.
- Funke Akindele’s movie A Tribe Called Judah made history by winning the first-ever Soundtrack of the Year award.
- Odumodublvck had a fantastic night, winning both Next Rated and Best Rap Single.
- Tems, Asake, and Davido continued their dominance, winning big in major categories.
- Mohbad was honored posthumously with a Street-Hop award for his hit song Ask About Me.
Despite the glitches, the night still managed to celebrate the energy, passion, and creativity that African music brings to the world stage.
The 17th Headies Awards reminded everyone why African music remains powerful and influential across the globe. Although the event faced some setbacks, it highlighted a new generation of artists who are pushing African sound to new heights.
Congratulations to all the winners and nominees!
We look forward to an even bigger and better Headies Awards next year.
