Africa
By Benprince Ezeh
THE year 2021 will go down as a year to remember for the entertainment industry around the world. It was a year that many events took place post coronavirus pandemic, left lovers of entertainment thrilled as event after event unfolded, generating huge discussions and excitement with often mixed reactions to some of the events.
It began with the most prestigious music award in Nigeria ‘The Headies’ in February. The organizers of the event announced TV personality and actress Nancy Isime and comedian Bovi as hosts, this made it the fourth time Bovi will host the event, while Nancy became the first female to host the event for the second time.
Fireboy DML took home four awards, including the record of the year, Bad Boy Tims took the rookie of the year, rapper ‘Falz’ took rap of the year, Omah-Lay took Next rated artiste, which is considered the highlight of the event, Wizkid took the artiste of the year and song of the year went to DJ Neptune feat. Joeboy and Mr. Eazi for an amazing job on ‘Nobody’.
In March was The 63rd Annual Grammy Awards ceremony, which was held in and around the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles on March 14. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year, running from September 1, 2019, to August 31, 2020. The nominations were revealed via a virtual Livestream on November 24, 2020. The performers for the ceremony were announced on March 7, 2021. South African comedian Trevor Noah hosted the ceremony.
Beyoncé received the most nominations with nine, followed by Dua Lipa, Roddy Ricch, and Taylor Swift with six each. Beyoncé received the most awards, with four, surpassing Alison Krauss as the most-awarded woman in the show’s history, with 28 awards overall. Swift won Album of the Year for Folklore, making her the first woman to win the award three times and the first artist to do so since Paul Simon in 1988. Billie Eilish won Record of the Year for “Everything I Wanted”, becoming the second solo artist, after Roberta Flack in 1974, to win two years consecutively, and the third overall since U2 in 2002.
H.E.R. won Song of the Year for “I Can’t Breathe” and Megan Thee Stallion won Best New Artist, becoming the second female rapper to win since Lauryn Hill in 1999. The ceremony was originally scheduled for January 31, 2021, however, on January 5, the Recording Academy postponed the ceremony to March 14, due to a spike in COVID-19 cases in Los Angeles as well as health and safety concerns therein
In April was the 93rd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, AMPAS, honoured films released from January 1, 2020, to February 28, 2021, at Union Station in Los Angeles. The ceremony was held on April 25, rather than its usual late-February date due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Nomadland won three awards at the main ceremony, including Best Picture. Other winners included The Father, Judas, and the Black Messiah, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom, Mank, Soul, and Sound of Metal with two awards each, and Another Round, Colette, If Anything Happens I Love You, Minari, My Octopus Teacher, Promising Young Woman, Tenet, and Two Distant Strangers with one. The telecast received mostly negative reviews, and it garnered 10.4 million viewers, making it the least-watched Oscar broadcast since 1974 when Nielsen began keeping records of viewership.
Chinese filmmaker Chloé Zhao became the first woman of color to win Best Director and the second woman overall after Kathryn Bigelow, who won at the 2010 ceremony for directing The Hurt Locker. At age 83, Best Actor winner Anthony Hopkins was the oldest performer to ever win a competitive acting Oscar. Best Actress winner Frances McDormand became the seventh person to win a third acting Oscar, the third to win three leading performance Oscars, and the second to win Best Actress three times. As a producer of Nomadland, she also was the first person in history to win Oscars for both acting and producing for the same film.
Best Supporting Actress winner Youn Yuh-Jung became the first Korean performer and second Asian female to win an acting Oscar after Miyoshi Umeki, who won the same category for her role in 1957’s Sayonara. With his nominations in Best Supporting Actor and Best Original Song for One Night in Miami…, Leslie Odom Jr. was the fourth consecutive person to earn acting and songwriting nominations for the same film.
The Big Brother Naija television reality show began on 24 July, 2021, and featured 26 housemates over the course of the ‘Shine Ya Eye’ season. And after nine live eviction shows, Whitemoney emerged as the winner of Big Brother Naija Season 6, finishing ahead of first runner-up Liquorose, and second runner-up Pere.
Whitemoney went home with ₦90m grand prize, which includes a ₦30m cash prize. He also won a two-bedroom apartment courtesy of RevolutionPlus Property, an Innoson IVM G-40 SUV, a weekend getaway to Seychelles for two packaged by Travelbeta, cash in an Abeg digital wallet, bitcoins courtesy of Patricia, and so much more.
The 2021 Africa Music Awards, AFRIMA was held on November 22, to recognize African music talents for their creativity. This year, the highest award winner was Iba One, who won the African Male Artist in Inspirational Music, Artiste, Duo, or Group in African Pop, Best Male Artiste Western Africa and, Album of the Year and Song Writer of the Year awards.
Wizkid followed with AFRIMA Artist of the Year Award, Best Collaboration, and Best Song of the Year for “Essence” with Tems.
Legendary Beatz won Best Producer of the Year, while Fireboy DML won African Fan’s Favourite awards as well as Best Duo African HipHop for “History” with Cheque. Kofi Olomide joins the list of Legendary Afrima Award holders, which also include Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango, and more
Also in November, ‘Assurance’ crooner and music executive, David Adeleke, otherwise known as Davido, broke the internet by donating all the money he received during his N100 million challenge ahead of his birthday. Davido noted that he received N200m from fans and friends and added N50 million. Which accounted for N250 million and he gave to all orphanages across Nigeria. What a man and God will continue to bless him every day of his life.
There was an increase of short comedy videos and vox-pop questions of various types on social media in 2021 after the federal government shut down Twitter in April for bringing down the President’s derogatory tweet. Comedians and some TV presenters were posing different questions to people and very funny responses were received, exposing the talents and creativity of Nigerians.
What a lovely year it was and would 2022 surpass the excitement and funs we had in 2021, only time shall tell.
First published – Dec. 31, 2021 @ 10:35 GMT |
C.E
Tags: Entertainment Events of the Year 2021
