Question! Why Wizkid And P-Square Lost MTV EMA ‘Best African Act’ to South Africans?

Forget that Wizkid and P-Square pack venues when they
perform in and outside of Nigeria, professionalism now
determines who wins what on the international music stage.
Unless Nigerian musicians want to continue to deceive
themselves, popularity as a determinant of success in the
music industry no longer cuts it as the South African group,
LCNVL. that beat the Nigerians is nowhere near the duo
when it comes to acceptance.
Popularity, however, didn't sway the regional voters for the
MTV EMA slot as Wizkid and P-Square were beaten to the
final slot of the "Best African Act" by LCNVL a few days
ago.
A member of the Grammy Award nomination committee in
United States told R in a phone conversation few hours after
the loss that sentiment does not work when it comes to
selecting artistes for the MTV EMA. "This group, from
management to PR level", he said, "is very professional and
thorough. In Nigeria, the world has seen the quality of artistes
that are there, but there are many things that are not in place
and it is working against our artistes".
He said that just last year, members of one of the group that
lost out in the MTV EMA stunned an American promoter who
had relied on their popularity to list them on a three-month
show in US when he asked for the contact of their sound
engineer, only to be told that they used disk jockeys when
they perform.
Believing that they were being novel, he allowed them on the
show for them to shock the promoter when they got on stage
and started miming to their songs. "Of course that was the
only show the guy allowed them to perform at in Maryland,
Washington Again, there is no adequate record of sales to
back up the bogus claims that Nigerian artistes make on social
media, and even in the print and electronic media.
"A lot needs to be done in the industry because we have
talented musicians in Nigeria. Nigeria, in fact, is the only
reason that the whole world has taken a liking to African
music, but we are gradually losing that hold. Smaller
countries will begin to outshine us because they do things like
professionals, unlike us", he said.
The South African duo were voted the "Best African Act" for
the 2013 MTV EMA ahead of Wizkid and P Square early this
week.
LCNVL will now move on to the next phase of voting to try
to secure a spot to represent the region in the Worldwide Act
category in Amsterdam.
LCNVL has been South Africa's most successful pop act of
the past five years, selling over 100,000 albums, winning the
SAMAs for Best Selling Album and Best Newcomer, and
touring the world, playing alongside the likes of Justin Bieber,
Taio Cruz, Mike Poser and Jason Derulo.
"Such provable information worked in LCNVL's favour,
unlike our own guys who claim they had sold millions of CDs
in just one, two years," added the American R's source.
Bruce Gillmer, Executive Vice President of Talent and Music
Programming/Events, later said "the MTV EMA highlights
the biggest and best international and regional superstars and
we're really looking forward to celebrating all of the
incredible talent in Amsterdam."