Music

And The Nominees Are; Mali's Aya Nakamura and Nigeria's Queen of Afrobeats Waje

By Hillary Essien | Aug 7, 2022

On May 24, The Headies released the list of nominees and their categories ahead of the 15th year of the annual award show set to hold on September 4 this year. 

We are excited to see the new, on the come up, and consistent names of women in the music industry from Nigeria and across Africa who are among the list of nominees. 

Document Women has put together a list of the women nominated in the biggest award show out of Africa and what we know about each of them. 

 

AYA NAKAMURA 

Born in 1995 in Bamako, Mali, Aya Coco Danioko known by her stage name Aya Nakamura is a French-Malian pop singer. She is popularly known for her hit song "Djadja" which was also the first Francophone song since 2009 to reach the top of the Dutch charts, the last to achieve this being "Alors on danse" by the Belgian artist Stromae. She took the name Nakamura after the character Hiro Nakamura of the NBC science fiction drama series Heroes.

Aya launched her music career with the stage name Aya Nakamura, after the character Hiro Nakamura of the NBC Heroes science fiction drama series. 

She has been nominated for several awards such as her first nomination at the BET Awards as Best International Act, the European Music Moves Talent Award for Best Urban album, MTV Europe Music Award for Best French Act, and this year The Headies award for Best West African Artiste of the Year and African Artiste of the Year. .

 

 

WAJE 

Aituaje Iruobe is a Nigerian born and bred singer. Her vocal range is known to cover three octaves which other artistes have found pleasing enough to contribute vocals to their songs. 

Waje first gained audience after being featured on the remake of P-Square’s Omoge Mi. 

She was also one of the judges on the first season of The Voice Nigeria. In 2019 Waje and Omawumi launched Hermanes Media, a media company that deals in film, TV production, adverts, content curation, brand event activation, and creative digital marketing. Waje has dabbled in the Afropop genre for over a decade now, a genre fuelled by her excellent vocals, one that juggles soul with RnB, and a motley of percussions, guitar, and trumpet sounds

Waje has been nominated in The Headies’ Best Vocal Performance (female) category. 

 

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