Entertainment Industry 2019: A remarkable Year to Remember

Mon, Dec 30, 2019
By publisher
4 MIN READ

Entertainment, Featured

By BenPrince Ezeh

THE year 2019 will go down as a year to remember in the Nigerian entertainment industry.  It was a year that left lovers of entertainment thrilled as events after events unfolded and new faces emerged in the industry in the country.

One of the big events of the year was the Annual African Muzik Awards, AFRIMAs, which is an annual event, but this time hosted in Lagos and some notable Nigerians were among the awardees. Burna Boy, who won the best Artiste in both West Africa and Africa in general, was honoured alongside 2Baba, Wizkid, Tiwa Savage and DJ Spinall.

The same month was Nigeria’s biggest award ceremony hosted by HipTv, Headies award. It was the 13th edition since its emergence in 2006. This award, which was held in Lagos and themed “Power of a Dream”, was anchored by Nigerian rapper Reminisce and actress/media personality Nancy Isime.

It was revealed that after shortlisting thousands of entries submitted between January 2018 and June 2019, the organizers of the ceremony announced the nominees on 1 October. Burna Boy emerged as the artist with 10 nominations and he became the highest nominations in one night. Teni followed with 6, while Wizkid had 5 nominations.

The ceremony featured performances from a number of artists, including Styl-Plus, Sunny Neji, Duncan Mighty, Teni and Victor AD. Teni won 4 awards, BurnaBoy was presented with the artiste of the year and song of the year respectively. Falz the Bahd guy rap album titled “Moral Instruction” was named the album of the year with Rema winning Next Rated award, beating Fireboy DML, Joeboy, Lyta, Victor AD and Zlatan Ibile

In June, the much anticipated Nigeria Tv reality show Big Brother Naija Season 4 themed “Pepper Dem” was the fourth season and the first to be staged in Nigeria after the three previous ones were held in South Africa.

The show kicked off with 21 housemates, but subsequently increased to 26 for a N60 million first prize. Mercy Eke emerged winner with Mike Edwards and Chukwuemeka “Frodd” Okoye finishing second and third respectively. It was also the first time a female housemate emerged the winner.

In December, Singer and actress, Belcalis Almánzar, aka Cardi B came to Nigeria to perform at the Livespot X Festival, which was held in Lagos. The rapper, who is recognised by Forbes as one of the most influential female rappers in the world.

The 2019 Grammy Award-winning rapper was undoubtedly excited to be in Africa’s most populous nation and interesting photos and videos of her adventures in the country have been making the rounds on the Internet.

The Bodak Yellow rapper has been flooding her Instagram page with raunchy pictures and videos to the delight of her over 55.2million followers. One of the highlights of her brief stay in Lagos was her visit to a strip club. The songwriter, who is also a former stripper, was in the company of Nigerian-American singer, Jidenna. Not only did the strippers entertain her, Cardi B also sprayed them with wads of cash.

She shared the stage with some notable Nigerian artistes like Burna Boy, Tiwa Savage, Teni, Patoranking, Joe Boy, Niniola and several other top Nigerian musicians.

During the electrifying performance, which featured some of her hit tracks ‘Bodak Yellow’, ‘Bartier Cardi’, ‘ I Like It That’, ‘Girls Like You’, ‘Money’, ‘Press’, ‘Backing It Up’, ‘Be Careful’ among many others, the rapper donned Nigeria’s national colours.

Dare Art Alade, the Chief Creative Director Livespot360 said that the love from the fans to Cardi B was immense that’s why she was chosen. “We know how much love the fans have for Cardi B and this was one of the reasons we chose to give fans a special experience to see the queen of hip-hop live in Lagos. However, we also are aware of the massive appeal of some of our Nigerian music acts. The show will definitely have been incomplete without these music stars, and this is why we all had a great time at Live Spot Festival.”

Unlike 2018, 2019 was a calm year in entertainment industry, one hopes that 2020 supersedes and brings about the ever exciting and entertaining year we always enjoy prior to this one.

– Dec. 30, 2019 @ 10:07 GMT |

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