Nigerian singer, Timaya has compared Nigerian award shows to those organised globally, asserting that the domestic ones lack credibility.
His comparison follows the recent backlash that Recording Academy faced for snubbing all the Nigerian nominees at the 66th edition of the Grammys.
Reacting during a recent interview with The Beat 99.9 FM, Lagos, Timaya said Nigerian awards are even worse than the Grammys in terms of credibility.
The host asked; “What is your take on a lot of people saying the Grammy used Afrobeats and we need to come back home and grow?”
Timaya said; “We don’t need to come back home. Even our own, which credible awards? Is it the Hip-hop awards, Hip TV awards [The Headies]? I don’t even know. They are not credible either. They are even worse than the Grammys.
“If we have a homegrown award that is credible, people would gravitate towards it. But for now, whether you like it or not, Grammy is still Grammy. We don’t have to back down [because Nigerian artists lost this year]. We are going again.”
Meanwhile, in related news…
CorrectNG reported earlier that Nigerian Hip Hop star, Ikechukwu Onunaku accused Grammy organsers of using his compatriots for cheap publicity.
He lamented over the fact that no Nigerian musicians won award at the 66th edition on the Grammys which held on Sunday night.
In a video he posted on his Instagram page, Ikechukwu slammed the Recording Academy, saying they exploited Nigerians for the purpose of enhancing the appeal of the Grammy Awards this year.
The rapper said the best thing to do was for Nigerian artistes to stop sending in their songs for Grammy consideration. He said Nigeria needs to create a fresh version of the prestigious award show in Africa.
A furious Ikechukwu, who noted that people had been complaining about the same thing, also accused the organisers of attempting to compartmentalize Afrobeats.
In his words; “We were just used, them use us the same way dem dey always use us, it’s not today that they started protesting and complaining about the Grammys. What I think we should do is stop sending in submissions and create our own Grammys.
We don’t even have to attach it to that name ‘Grammys’, we don’t need to prove to these people that we kill it. Look at what they did. They took all of us over there, utilised us, and then just betrayed us, compartmentalized us. It’s a shame.”
