Headies 2016: Here’s why Tekno got ONLY a ‘Next Rated’ nod

Tekno has been nominated only in the ‘Next Rated’ category at the Headies despite a number of hits to his name.

About one hour ago, organisers of The Headies award released its 2016 list of nominees and one couldn’t help but notice that Tekno was ‘BIGLY’ missing in the list.
All he got instead is a ‘measly’ ‘Next Rated’ category.
For starters, this writer is not the biggest fan of Tekno, but he also believes hard work, hustle and consistency should not be overlooked for industry politics or beef.


As a journalist, the first thought was to find out if indeed Tekno and his team honoured the organisers call for entries about a month ago, and sources at Hip TV said to me, ‘I think they did, I’m not sure though because I’m not part of the jury‘.
The next point of call would have been to put a call through to Tekno’s record label, but his boss, Ubi Franklin is a bit of ‘ASS’ who is pissed off at the media for reporting the alleged issues he has in his one-year marriage with Lilian Esoro.
So, how did Tekno end up with just the ‘NEXT RATED’ nomination with the likes of Ycee, Mr Eazi, Aramide and Humblesmith?
The organisers of Headies explained the year under review to be between JULY 2015 – JUNE 2016 (and only songs released within this period will be eligible for nomination), the same period in which Tekno, who made his debut in 2013 with ‘Holiday’, has been at his ‘HOTTEST’.
But dates of the release of his biggest songs may have worked against him.
Tekno released the smash hit ‘Duro’ June 2015, a month before it would have been eligible for consideration by the Headies organisers. And then his next SMASH hit, ‘Pana’ was released in July 2016; a month after the window of consideration.
This clearly disqualifies any of these songs from getting nods. Tekno however did release other songs like ‘Wash’, ‘Where’ and ‘Maria’ within the period under review, but it’s been argued that these songs aren’t big enough to get him more nominations.
Therefore, should he be happy with just the ‘NEXT RATED’ nod? Clearly, it’s the biggest category at the awards and the only category with a car prize.

Given these facts, I believe he should be happy and mobilise his fans to vote for him. The award and car prize may just be his for the taking.
While he’s at it, he may also consider working on the timing of his song releases going forward and learn the science of releases. Not everything should be random.
But no doubt, Tekno has been one of the standout stars of 2016.