SMVA: The third instalment

Uti in his metalic ‘outer space' outfit

The light showers eventually turned into a down pour on the evening of 20 October 2010, the date of the third annual Soundcity Music Video Awards (SMVA). Navigating through traffic on a rainy day in Lagos is usually awful, and to say driving within 500meters of the venue of a high profiled event as the SMVA, it even became tougher as the huge traffic appeared to have created a bottle neck getting through the gates of Eko Hotel and Suites, the venue of the event. There was also the trouble of finding parking space. At the parking lot, the stress of getting in was almost instantly taken away by the sight of different guests, dressed elegantly and glamorously, all finding their way into the hall in anticipation of a great show.

Into Da Arena

By 10pm, the hall was crowded yet guests continued to troop in. The centre stage was sandwiched by two giant screens with live projection of the stage actions to cater for the stage ‘blind spots’ in the hall. The screens would later, at different intervals during the show, display brief interview snippets with past SMVA winners including 2Face, eLDee, MI and Illbliss. By 10.40pm, the music got louder and you could tell the show was about to ‘kickoff’; minutes after, a voice welcomed guests to “SMVA 2010”.

The acts

Africa’s biggest act, (in KORA’s book) P Square, opened the awards on a high note as they gave a commendable account of themselves over live band beats. Donning shinny military styled jackets, they went through numbers including ‘E No Easy’ amongst others. At some point, they got rid of their jackets to remain in all black. The energy they dissipated on the stage was further complimented by Guinness World Record dancer, Kaffy, who joined them with her feet bare. Quite unlike the young dancer, who is well known for energetic dance sequences, she threw in a couple of thumbs up amorous progressions.

Afterwards, Big Brother’s ‘Million Naira Man’, Uti Nwachukwu, was introduced as the host of the evening; as he got on stage, accompanied by three female models in swimsuits, a loud approving scream echoed in the hall. He wore a kind of alien shinny overall which was later stripped off by the models leaving him in a black tuxedo. After taking a little time out to brag about his outfit, he introduced the first set of presenters, X3M music boss, Steve Baba-Eko and Michelle Dede to present the Best Male Video category. Banky W’s ‘Strong Thing’ took away the statuette at the expense of Dagrin’s ‘Pon Pon Pon’ amongst others. Banky in turn dedicated the album to a couple of associates including the late rapper.

Trybes Records boss, eLDee sarcastically pulled a Kanye West stunt on Kenny Saint Brown as she was receiving the award for the Best Female Video on Goldie’s behalf. He jokingly gate crashed her speech, grabbed the mic from her and went “I ma let you finish but...” just like West did Taylor Swift. He, however, praised the Kennis Music team as opposed to suggesting a better video like West did at the 2009 Video Music Awards.

Some of the Highs

Singer Djinee, received his first major award in the Best Special Effect category for the ‘Over killing’ video and amidst happy cheers from the crowd, he challenged his Niger-Delta compatriots to embrace peace. “Look at me now,” he said as he flaunted his prize as an evidence of what could be achieved without violence.

The performances included a scintillating one from Soul singer Asa, who performed sans her guitar in a white shirt and black leggings. With her dreads parked in a Mohican style that slanted to her left, she dazzled the crowd with some eclectic dance routines performing three new songs off her new album, ‘Beautiful Imperfection’.

Sasha also came through to perform ‘Making Money’, before label mate YQ worked the guests with his groovy ‘I Like Girls’. While Sasha spiced her performance with a cameo opening by deft guitarist, Bez, YQ brought with him two bump short wearing rump shakers. Bez’s appearance, however, stirred up talks about him probably being that replacement for GT Tha Guitarman who just left storm records. (Obi Asika, Storm 360’s boss, has however quelled this rumour).

Other breath taking performances were by Whiz Kid who flexed his body with various dance steps; his boss, Banky W also brought back Kaffy who had another amorous stage time with Banky as they dance pelvic to pelvic.

D’Banj, however, stole the show as he got everyone to his feet to sing along as he performed his new singles, ‘Mr. Endowed’ and ‘Scape Goat’ alongside Don Jazzy.

Also, at different intervals during the show, a voice pretending to be Big Brother’s will converse comically with the host, Uti, in a South African accent.

And some lows

Although performances by the acts from the other African countries including, Teargas from South-Africa, Deep Level and Ghanaians R2B, were decent and received their fair share of applauds afterwards, the response during the acts wasn’t encouraging. Not that you can blame the crowd for not singing along to a song they are not familiar with, but you will notice that these were energy breaking periods for the show as the crowd just sat patiently to watch them get their performances over with. R2B however got an excellent response when they performed the viral ‘Kiss Your Hand’ alone.

Although this part wasn’t much of a low as it got the crowd reeling with laughter, it certainly was a low on the part of Kenneth Okolie, the current Mr. Nigeria. He goofed so bad, the crowd gave him a pasting. “Let me hear your hands up,” he said as he walked in and immediately the cheering he was beginning to garner turned into jeering as the crowd echoed his slip. He however quickly picked himself up and presented the Best Cinematography category.

All in all, it was a wrap for the third instalment of the Soundcity Music Video Awards, which was also the first time the brand tested waters going Pan-African.

Source:http://234next.com/