Big wins for Nigeria at BET 2014

Davido took top international honours when he won the BET Best International Act: Africa. It was a close win as he was up against South Africa’s Mafikizolo, Diamond Platnumz of Tanzania, Sarkodie from Ghana, Tiwa Savage from Nigeria and Togo’s Toofan.The Nigerian act and record label owner has had a great year and is fresh […]

Davido took top international honours when he won the BET Best International Act: Africa. It was a close win as he was up against South Africa’s Mafikizolo, Diamond Platnumz of Tanzania, Sarkodie from Ghana, Tiwa Savage from Nigeria and Togo’s Toofan.
The Nigerian act and record label owner has had a great year and is fresh from bagging two MTV Africa Music Awards.
At 21, Davido is making music history by being one of the youngest African stars to win a slew of international awards. He has also collaborated with Mafikizolo on a new hit track, Tshelete and boasts partnerships with artistes such as Naeto C, Tiwa Savage and Ice Prince.
The BET awards yielded very few surprises with Beyoncé raking in two awards for Best Female R&B/Pop Artist and the FANdemonium Award. Pharrell Williams also emerged triumphant, winning Best Male R&B/Pop Artist and Best Video.
Other African artistes were also recognised with Kenyan award-winning actress, Lupita Nyong’o, who snagged an Oscar earlier this year, scooping the BET Award for Best Actress, beating Oprah Winfrey, Kerry Washington, Angela Bassett and Gabrielle Union. The actress, who did not attend the awards tweeted, “@BETAwards, thank you for the #BestActress award: another blessing to joyfully count. May the Force be with you. -LN #BETAwards.” The movie that propelled Nyong’o into super-stardom, “12 Years A Slave,” also won the BET Award for Best Movie.
Since 2010, the BET Awards have recognised artists of African descent in various musical genres in the ‘Best International Act: Africa’ category. Nominated in that category were some of Africa’s biggest and best artistes, including  South African-pop duo Mafikizolo, Ghanaian hip hop artiste Sarkodie, Nigerian artistes, Tiwa Savage and Davido, Toofan from Togo and Diamond Platnumz from Tanzania. And since 2010, the BET Award for Best International Act – Africa went to Nigeria again; this time to Davido who also recently took home two awards, for Best Male and Artiste of the Year at the MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMA) held in Durban, South Africa. Taking to his Instagram, Davido wrote: “Victory!! Africa We did it! Thanks to all my fans!! WE WON @BETAwards BEST AFRICAN ACT 2014!! so happy!! Time to party!”
This year, for the first time since the introduction of the ‘Best International Act: Africa’ category, African artistes performed during the pre-BET Awards events. BET nominees, Mafikizolo, Sarkodie, Tiwa Savage and Nigerian hip hop superstar Ice Prince, who won the 2013 BET Award for ‘Best International Act: Africa,’  performed at the “Music Around the Globe” showcase on Saturday.
This was Mafikizolo and Tiwa Savage’s first ever performance in the United States and followed their wins at the 2014 MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMA) in the ‘Best Group’ and ‘Best Female’ categories respectively. “The BET nomination and the opportunity to perform during the BET Awards weekend was a big win for us!” said Nhlanhla of Mafikizolo after performing their hit song “Khona” on Saturday.
Sarkodie, who took home a MAMA for ‘Best Hip Hop,’ said “This is our time Africa!” just before he took the stage.