The Headies 2016: What "Next Rated" award category really means - Organizers

The Headies Award organizers, HipTV has released an official statement explaining what "The Next Rated" award category actually means and criteria for nomination.

This is as a result of reaction from fans who thinks Singer "Tekno" is above the category nominated. 

The 2016 Headies Next Rated category has, Ycee, Tekno, Mr.Eazi, Humblesmith, Aramide as nominees.

ALSO READ: See Full list of Nominees for The 2016 Headies Awards

Read statement below:

"Over the years, Nigeria’s most prestigious music award, The Headies has strived for excellence in building the award on true values of integrity, transparency and responsibility. We have worked hard to reward artistic ingenuity since day one and also educating the teaming fans of the award, the public and the entertainment industry about the rules of the awards and the criteria for nominations in each category. Often times, we realize that the fans, people in the industry and the media are either misled or not paying attention to the rules and criteria for nomination.Hence, it is important to set the record straight and continue to enlighten the industry and the fans. We recognise how important The Headies is to our industry and we will not take information for granted.

Next Rated for example are officially unreleased artiste in the year under review. This means, no matter how good or popular your song may be, how many hit singles or how many good music videos you may have, if you have not recorded and released an official album, you are still eligible to be nominated for that category. In the same vein, you may start your career a year ago, as long as you have released an album, will not the eligible for nomiation in the Next Rated Category."