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‘Love Nwantiti has no award in Nigeria’ – CKay
Afrobeat musician CKay revealed that he had no Nigerian awards for his most popular song, Love Nwantiti.
“Love Nwantiti,” released in 2019, emerged as a standout track in Afrobeat’s evolution, captivating listeners with its melodic charm. The song gained immense popularity, accumulating over 800 million streams on Spotify. Its virality was further propelled by TikTok, where it became a sensation, with many users initially unaware of its origin.
On November 9, 2021, “Love Nwantiti” achieved a significant milestone by surpassing 15 billion streams on TikTok, solidifying its status as one of the biggest global hits of 2021, according to the Bytedance platform.
During his appearance on the Afrobeats Podcast with Shopsydoo, CKay expressed his disappointment with the lack of recognition for “Love Nwantiti” at present-day award ceremonies. Despite its monumental success and widespread acclaim, the song has yet to receive any Nigerian awards, prompting CKay to raise questions about the criteria used in such ceremonies.
He said, “Well I have my reservation about awards in general because I feel there’s so much involved and the people who run the awards I don’t know the workings behind it. I have seen so many situations where music that was deserving both at home and internationally not just the Grammy doesn’t get any recognition. This interesting that this same song that is 6 times platinum has no award in Nigeria”.
"It's interesting that Love Nwantiti has no award in Nigeria"
– CKay pic.twitter.com/ZQ45XHgfrr
— ๐ฌ @๐ผ๐ป๐ฒ๐ท๐ผ๐ฏ๐น๐ฒ๐๐๐ฏ๐ผ๐ (@OneJoblessBoy) February 27, 2024
The melodic singer further expressed his sentiments, questioning the disparity between the immense success of “Love Nwantiti” and its lack of recognition in award ceremonies. He emphasized that a song with nearly a billion streams should raise questions about the metrics being used for award nominations and wins.
Despite its overwhelming popularity, “Love Nwantiti” has received only three nominations and has won one award for Most Performed International Song. The nominations include:
1. City People Music Award – Best Collab of the Year 2020
2. BRIT Awards – Best International Song 2022
3. BRIT Awards London – Most Performed International Song 2022
These limited accolades highlight a discrepancy between the song’s global impact and its acknowledgment within the award circuit, prompting CKay to question the criteria used for recognizing achievements in the music industry.