Why Awards Should Not Involve Nominees Soliciting For Votes

As a great fan of entertainment and recognition of great works I am writing this article to change awards organizers way of judging awards. This is not only for Nigerian award organizers but for all award organizers around the world doing it the way I will tag “The Wrong Way”.

Well, I think the title of this post should have given you guys some hints on the message I am trying to pass here.

According to my personal research most award organizers in the world use the public’s vote to judge some award categories which means they want to know the public’s judgment so as to know how to give these awards to the right people which I will definitely say is the right thing. In some cases some award categories do not require the public’s judgment which is another cool thing. So the purpose of this article is to inform us all that most organizers are doing it the wrong way.

The Wrong Way I am saying is this; Most of our organizers ask the nominees to start soliciting for votes and start promoting themselves so as to win the award, which means the person who promotes the voting link the most wins the award, in a decent voice I will say; that is freaking Dumb!

So let’s come to think of It, 3 people were nominated in a category, the first person has 10,000 social media followers or fans, the second 7,000 and the third 4,000 with the three of them promoting their voting links to their social media fans, it is quite obvious the first person will have the highest votes, so what should be the fate of the 3rd person with 4,000 fan base only? I guess the award organizers expect that person to use his/her money to promote the voting link by advertising on social media right? 
If you do not know this before, you should know that there is no more honour in any award that the nominees have to start begging for votes by sharing a poll link on any of their fan pages, awards are all about honoring and recognizing a personality’s great work which means the person’s work speaks of him/her so no need for self promotion to get an award.

As a matter of fact, I personally as an upcoming artist really don’t get moved by awards, in other words; winning awards as a musician these days is actually not an achievement to me. What matters to me most is the influence I make with my music and the records I set as an artist. I had rather top the Billboard Hot100 for weeks than win 10 Grammys, I had rather have the 3rd bestselling album of all time on iTunes than win any award.

 Let’s take a look at P-SQUARE, these guys Youtube channel is the most viewed in Nigeria. One of their videos is the most viewed Nigerian video on YouTube, that is what I call achievement, look at 2face- His album is the best selling Nigerian album on ITunes that is what I call achievement, look at D’banj his Oliver Twist song peaked at number 2 in the U.K and topped charts in many other countries and that is what I call achievement, so why the “F” would I start stressing myself to get an award which to be sincere we all know they are judged based on organizers view and the public’s votes are less considered?
 Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying I don’t appreciate awards, I do, but not as much as most people count it these days, most especially our Nigerian artists.

I mean if any award category strictly depend on votes from the public I believe it should be done in a better and a much more sensible way.

Let’s take a look at my own way on how this should be done, being a Nigerian I am going to use The Headies Awards as an example, Headies as we all know is the biggest  music award in Nigeria which means they’ve got a lot of levels when it comes to the entertainment scene. So let’s say they want to judge some of their award categories based on the public’s vote why don’t they promote the voting page to the public themselves? I mean award organizers who wants to use the public’s vote to judge their  award categories should be able to do it the perfect way. What I am saying is when an award voting commences the organizers should promote the voting page to the audiences and see what people truly think. In this E-world we are in presently I think even the social media promo is enough for them to use. Headies is an award show millions of Nigerians know about and they expect to see nominees and winners every year so it is quite obvious people would want to cast their votes for the right people. At this level I think an award show as respected as Headies shouldn’t find it difficult to get their voting page promoted on top blogs in Nigeria, I believe big names like Notjustok.com,Tooxclusive.com,360nobs.com,BellaNaija and even Lindaikeji blog would still help Headies promote their voting page for free if some partnership agreements were made, and with them promoting on Facebook and Twitter alongside I am so sure Headies would have hundreds of thousand votes from Nigerians selecting great artists they think deserve award. Via this system it would be crystal clear the award is given via people’s choice.

Award organizers should try and inculcate this system and stop telling artists to solicit for votes.