Organisers of the MTV Video Music Awards, VMAs have released the list of nominees for 2023 and some Nigerian artistes were named.
Leading the nominations are American singers, Taylor Swift and SZA with eight and six nominations respectively.
There are 35 artistes who are first-time nominees this year, including GloRilla, Ice Spice, Flo Milli, among others.
It was observed that an Afrobeats category had been added to the nominations for the first time in the award’s history. The new afro-centric category was dominated by Nigerian artistes. Cameroonian-American singer, Libianca was the only none Nigerian nominee.
See the nominees for the Afrobeats Category:
Ayra Starr – “Rush” – Mavin Global Holdings
Burna Boy – “It’s Plenty” – Atlantic Records / Spaceship Entertainment Ltd.
Davido feat. Musa Keys – “UNAVAILABLE” – Sony Music U.K. / RCA Records
Fireboy DML & Asake – ”Bandana” – Empire Distribution
Libianca – “People” – Sony Music U.K. / RCA Records
Rema & Selena Gomez – “Calm Down” – Mavin Global Holdings Ltd / Jonzing World Entertainment / SMG Music / Interscope Records
Wizkid ft Ayra Starr– “2 Sugar” – Starboy / RCA Records
Meanwhile, Rema also bagged two other nominations with ‘Calm Down’ featuring Selena Gomez.
‘Calm Down’ was nominated in the “Song of the Year” and “Best Collaboration” categories.
The 2023 VMAs are scheduled to take place on September 12, 2023, and it will air live from the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey.
Meanwhile in other news…
Top Nigerian Afrobeats singer, Damini Ogulu also known as Burna Boy, has spoken against the planned military intervention in Niger Republic following a coup.
The Grammy award-winning urged Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu to concentrate on addressing the fuel crisis in Nigeria caused by his abrupt removal of subsidy.
Speaking through his aide, King Manny’s Instagram live session, Burna Boy said Nigeria should not be thinking of going to war when there is fuel scarcity.
He also explained how the lack of fuel can pose a challenge to the military if they are eventually deployed.
Burna said; “Wetin dey sub na? Dem say na War we wan enter like this o [laughs]. Fuel never dey you wan go fight war.
“How you wan reach the battlefield? You go use…. Wettin dem dey use that generator now do? Gas generator. E shock me. Wahala no dey ever tire Nigeria.”
