Nigerian musician-Davido has won the 2014 BET African Act award, beating Ghana’s past winner-Sarkodie, Diamond Platnumz (Tanzania), Mafikizolo (South Africa), Tiwa Savage (Nigeria) and Toofan (Togo).
Davido took to twitter to announce his joy to his fans and thank them for the support, saying, “Thanks to all my fans!! WE WON @BETAwards BEST AFRICAN ACT 2014!! so happy!! Time to party!”.
With the plaque already in Davido’s hands, that should tell you it was once again a backstage presentation…
Researching on BET award scheme earlier this week, GhanaCelebrities.Com discovered that KKD is one of the African Adjudicators for BET’s International Acts – Africa. He explained why BET organizers usually give the plaque or statuette to the African artists off stage:
“First, BET is a huge American brand so their audience is Americans or people living in America. They have a responsibility to their audience, to generate income, pay taxes to the government of America, create employment, promote artistes or performers with their culture, and to be competitive in their market.
Because of all these, they won’t lose what we call ‘the battle for the eye ball.’ So BET is doing us good by giving us (Africans) nominations or awards in their award scheme. BET may create opportunities for Africans by giving us nomination or award, recognize us for our culture or learn from them, but, they do not see us as superior over theirs! They give recognition and praise to their best thinkers, creators, manufacturers, etc.
Already, we don’t see our artistes or musicians as big! We see artistes in UK or America as bigger than our own, so the point is, in as much as we don’t see the greatness in our own; we shouldn’t expect others to see them as such!