The Rhythm Of 2017 Soundcity MVP Awards Festival

FUNSHO AROGUNDADE

At exactly 1 o’clock early Saturday of 13 January, 2018, the Eko Convention Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, Nigeria heaved as music superstar, Davido was announced as the African Artiste of the Year at the 2017 Soundcity MVP Awards Festival.

It was an anti-climax for the young music star, who on that night was the center of attraction as he mounted the stage thrice to pick other awards of Song of the Year and Video of the Year.

As Davido won big, so does Maleek Berry winning two awards as the Best New artiste and Best Pop. Of course, Maleek was pitied against other talented new acts including Mayorkun, Dice Ailes, Small Doctor, Nadia Nakai and Aslay but it’s no gainsaying that Maleek made numbers of amazing hits in 2017 including Eko Miami and Been Calling.

This amazing Maleek did not stop at just dropping new music, he also produced a couple of others for some artistes, made himself available for beautiful collaborations as well and performed at soldout shows in the United Kingdom last year.

South Africa’s rap star Cassper Nyovest took the plaque for the Best Hiphop and Tiwa Savage is the Best Female as Diamond Platnumz won the plaque for Best Male. The announcement of Diamond sparked a row on the social media as many contended his choice as the winner. But the Tanzanian talent really proved his worth in 2017. Sarkodie won Best Collaboration for his “Painkiller” song with Runtown. Olamide and Wizkid, respectively got the Listeners Choice and Digital Artiste of the Year.

With an enchanting set that had a T Shaped runway like stage, the front arena usually reserved for VVIP guests was left for regular attendees who rocked with the line-up of performers time and time again. There were well-elevated rows of bleachers to create an amphitheatre and gave a vantage view of the stage but detached enough not to cause an encumbrance for the VVIP.

For the second edition of Soundcity MVP Awards, it was a well planned and executed event. Hosted by the Big Brother reality television star, Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, the organisers promised an award ceremony and a festival full of pomp and pageantry, and delivered on both counts as guests came for the two and went home happy to have more.

There were electrifying performances from top acts from different parts of the continent including Tiwa Savage, Skales, Yemi Alade, Seyi Shay, Small Doctor and 2Baba.

The high point of those performances was the Hip-hop marathon session where rave Nigerian and Ghana rappers launched into lyrical festival.

It started with South Africa’s Emtee and was trailed by Nigeria’s Big Shot who yielded the stage for Ghanaian rap sensation, Sarkodie, who after dropping two tracks invited compatriot, Shatta Wale on stage. Rap superstar, M.I grabbed the real headlines with his performance as he closed the back to back marathon using the same dancers.

The awards Festival was introduced in 2016 by Tajuddeen Adepetu-owned Consolidated Media Associates, owners of Soundcity Africa (Television, Radio and Digital), to replace the Soundcity Music Video Awards rested in 2010.