Nigerian Afrobeats singer, Kingsley Chinweike Okonkwo, popularly known as Kcee, has revealed that repeated snubs by award organisers once left him in tears.
In an interview he had on the Afrobeats Intelligence podcast, Kcee spoke about the emotional toll of giving your best to produce quality music while being ignored by awards organisers.
“I grew up in an industry that wasn’t fair to me. There wasn’t any attention given to me at any moment. I was doing a lot that the industry wasn’t recognising.
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“The fans were the ones who were behind me. I did a lot of work; they were not nominating me for awards. And I cried; I was pained,” the singer said.
Discussing his coping strategy, he said he stopped himself from seeking validation through awards after noticing a consistent pattern of exclusion.
“Right now, when I win awards, or you don’t nominate me, I don’t care. I prefer the rewards to the awards
According to him, he has since focused on his music and fans, finding success with hits like “Ojapiano” and “Limpopo”.
“So, when ‘Limpopo’ came, oh, I was in tears. I was like, no, God has answered my prayer. He took me to the global market straight. After all the years I’ve worked with Presh, that’s like the biggest record I’ve ever done.
“I dropped ‘Ojapiano’ like today, the next day, it was doing 120,000 videos on TikTok in one day. And it happened for seven days non-stop. That’s organic. The white people were vibing to it,” he said.
