Sunday, December 7, 2014 is not a day many people would forget in a hurry. It was the day scheduled for the 9th edition of The Future Awards Africa 2014.
When the venue for an event is somewhere as prestigious as the Intercontinental Hotel Lagos and the International act, Asa, is billed to perform, it goes without saying that the expectations for such an event would be high.
The 9th edition of The Future Awards Africa 2014 was billed to be the event of the year for many reasons; with Ice Prince and Osas Ighodalo co-hosting the event and keynote speeches by Oby Ezekwesili as well as John Momoh.
As with almost all things Nigerian, the event did not begin on time. the cocktail which was to begin at 4:30 did not kick off until 5:30 due to the late arrival of many of the guests. The sound check by Asa was definitely electrifying enough for most of us to disregard the late commencement.
Nevertheless, the event eventually kicked off and the quality of the small chops as well as the unending flow of drinks made it probably worth waiting for.
The event kicked off a little after 7p.m but the hosts had such a questionable level of excitement that the crowd was sentenced to some initial lethargy. Osas Ighodalo might be a wonderful actress, but she’s definitely a questionable compere.
At the best of times, she was unexcited and barely audible. Anyhow, many other acts such as Falz and Bovi more than made up for the unimpressive hosts.
With outstanding bounty between Falz and Bovi, the stage was set for an interesting evening. The keynote speeches were particularly impressive with a speech on Elections and 2015 by Banky W as well as a keynote speech by Oby Ezekwesili on Bring Back Our Girls.
We waited with bated breath for Asa and we were not disappointed; with a stand out live performance from her with renditions like “Eyo and “Jailer”, she raised the ante for the rest of the evening.
Some of the winners of the Future Awards Africa 2014 include “Diamond Platinum”, the Tanzanian musician, Philip Obaji Jr, Andrew Mupuya amongst others.
All in all, it was a great event that definitely has us itching to see what happens in 2015!