Another year, another award season. 2010 was so full on it seems like 5 minutes since we kicked it in Kenya at the 2nd annual
MTV Africa Music Awards show last year. This year like the debut edition the awards will be held in Lagos at the at the
Eko Hotel & Suites in Lagos on Saturday 11 December 2010.
Headliner
Rick Ross is an exciting new addition to the MTV Africa Music Awards bill. The rapper together with Kenya’s
P-Unit, South Africa’s
Jozi and Nigeria’s
Wande Coal will join previously announced performers
DJ Arafat (Ivory Coast),
2Face (Nigeria),
Daddy Owen (Kenya),
Banky W (Nigeria),
Fally Ipupa (DRC),
Teargas (South Africa) and
Cabo Snoop (Angola) on stage at the event.
 |
| Rapper T-pain. |
Lagos — For an award that can conveniently be described as well beyond expectation, the MTV Africa Music Awards was a truly classy show, which justified all the hype and glamour that paved its way all through the run-up.
Despite the award's shaky start, which left many wondering whether the event would be a night of woeful tales, Tuface Idibia, led the Nigerian charge, as Sasha, P Square and Mo Cheddah held on tenaciously to lift the conuntry's flag higher.
 |
| Peter of P-square. |
Tuface, with two awards, in the category of Best Male and the coveted Artiste of the Year, while Congolese artist, Fally Ipupa, whose stock on the continent continues to rise with inroads into the mainstream, picked up the Best Video and Best Francophone awards to emerge as the night's joint highest winner with the Nigerian act.
The awards, held inside the Expo Hall of Eko Hotel and Suites.
It kicked off with a curtain-raising performance by Rick Ross, which got the crowd into the groovy set needed for such a night.
That happened after the countdown ran out and there was not a dull moment, as the stage was set with American rap star, Eve, and as if putting the crowd on cue, had said it was time to party as the rap queen once again asked if Lagos was ready.
First winner of the night was soon unveiled, as Fally Ipupa soon picked up the gong for Best Video. Following in the same manner was 2face, who clinched Best Male at that point.
 |
| Rick Rose Having His time. |
The king of Lagos party, Banky W, also known as Mr. Capable, who took to the stage performing his hit single, 'Lagos Party', which seemed really apt for the occasion. When called up to present the next award of Best Anglophone, Julius Agwu who was described as one of the funniest men in the country, wowed the audience with a joke dwelling on R Kelly, that the R 'n' B king had to conquer his phobia for flying by coming up with the single, 'I Believe I Can Fly' but he soon goofed when he concluded that it was Airtel that first brought R Kelly to the country.
 |
| Sasha and Eve. |
Daddy Owen soon emerged the winner of the Anglophone category. He said he is the first Kenyan artiste to be so honoured at MAMA despite the award holding in that country last year.
Daddy Owen, a gospel act and kind of cute figure in Kenya, kept thanking Jesus profusely, as some cute ladies, who seemed to have travelled down all the way from other parts of Africa, sprang to their feet and erupted in cheers.
 |
| Eve, the Host of MAMA 2010. |
P Unit, soon teamed up in an exhilarating performance with Yetunde Alabi popularly known as Sasha P, now regarded as first lady but Sasha, although doing a rap verse already done in a released song, did not seem to strike the right chord in with the crowd.
The Best Lusophone category, picked up by Angola's Cabo Snoop who was also winning the first ever award for his native West African country, was presented by Banky W.
 |
| Fally Ipupa |
Fally Ipupa was soon to come on stage again to pick the award for Best Francophone but the audience became more interested and animated when Eve sought education from Fally concerning the "Sexy Dance thing" as she calls it.
As predicted by Saturday Independent last week, Eminem, whose resurgence is going very well, clinched the Best International, beating Drake, Rihanna, and Rick Ross but one would always wonder how come Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga did not make the list of nominees in this category.
Although, absent at the awards, Eminem had words of thanks for the organsiers and his fans for his first MAMA awards via a video message.
 |
| Cabo Snoop (Angola) |
Eldee and Ikechukwu briefly pulled some stunts regarding popularity among the audience and the result putting up Eldee as the winner did not come as a surprise The good time for Nigeria followed as one of the country's best in the female rap circles, Sasha P, as she now likes to be known, was chosen over fellow Nigerian, Nneka, as well as Barbara Kanam and Lizha James, from DRC and Mozambique respectively for Best Female.
 |
| DJ Arafat (Ivory Coast), receiving his award. |
Sasha, however, seemed pretty surprised to have picked the award going by her level of excitement like a child getting an unusually huge chocolate gift.
The duo of Peter and Paul, better known as P Square continued their attempt at colonising the Best Group category as they have now won the award at all three editions of MAMA so far.
Although, the duo did not make it to the awards ceremony, like Eminem, they had a video recording ready for the organsiers and their fans.
 |
| Eve, T-pain & Rossy. |
The collaboration of Tuface with South African rock group, The Parlotones, was well on point and if it was a strategy to reflect the fact that he is on top of his game, as he performed with a live band.
Tuface invaded the stage with a jingled performance of 'Only Me', jumping into the crowd, a stunt controversial rapper, Eedris Abdulkareem is noted for.
He was carried around until he was shipped all the way and connected to the next stage, though not without losing a couple of valuables.
He gave it to the fun-crazy crowd as everyone at the venue swayed and excitedly lapped it all up.
With his Artiste of the Year crown up for grab long before the night, as he was not even included in the list of nominees for that category, Mo Hits' headliner, D' Banj would have been hoping to get the consolation of winning the Song of the Year category but even that did not happen as South African pop/R&B outfit Liquideep, with their sweet-sounding 'Fairytale' picked the gong for it.
 |
| Eve on the red carpet. |
He, however, put that aside when he stepped up to present the award of Artiste of the Year, determined to send the speculations flying again, saying that he and screen siren, Genevieve Nnaji, would make a sexy couple, to which the Nollywood diva said nothing but continued with issues about the award.
The koko master, however, made a good show to acquit himself as a good loser, especially for a man used to accolades but getting none that night.
If there was one category that almost all members of the audience seemed happy with, it was the emergence of Nigeria's young inspiring act, Mo Cheddah as Best New: Act.
Side by side with this, is the moving spectacle presented by the visuals spinning out of the documentary put on the screen for the MAMA Legend category pre-awarded to one of Africa's true legends and late Grammy Award winner, Miriam Makeba, whose moniker, Mama Africa, had at least one of the words forming the name of the awards, in fact the most vital, Africa.
Although, not without some noticeable flaws, the performance of T-Pain, which came as the very last, was great.
It was laced with a lavish dosage of great sounds and energetic dance steps by the American singer and rapper himself and members of his band as he emerged as another act that wowed the audience in a really big way.
It eventually ended with a largely memorable rendition of "Win" featuring Rick Ross, Da LES and 2face in a fitting finale that also drew almost all the winners including the big stars at the venue onto the stage.
The Lagos State Government kept its promise of free flow of traffic, as LASTMA officials were seen staged at positions and working their socks off in controlling traffic.
Side by side with this, is the moving spectacle presented by the visuals spinning out of the documentary put on the screen for the MAMA Legend category pre-awarded to one of Africa's true legends and late Grammy Award winner, Miriam Makeba, whose moniker, Mama Africa, had at least one of the words forming the name of the awards, in fact the most vital, Africa.
Although, not without some noticeable flaws, the performance of T-Pain, which came as the very last, was great.
It was laced with a lavish dosage of great sounds and energetic dance steps by the American singer and rapper himself and members of his band as he emerged as another act that wowed the audience in a really big way.
It eventually ended with a largely memorable rendition of "Win" featuring Rick Ross, Da LES and 2face in a fitting finale that also drew almost all the winners including the big stars at the venue onto the stage.
The Lagos State Government kept its promise of free flow of traffic, as LASTMA officials were seen staged at positions and working their socks off in controlling traffic.
The MAMA 2010 was very hot, the winners really deserve to win. What is your take about this, post your comments below.
