Tanzania’s star Naseeb Abdul Juma alias Diamond Platnumz is very likely to bag the BET Award in his nominated category Best International Act prize.
All odds may seem to be against him, but being the only East African artist in the category, the Bongo singer will most definitely achieve a major milestone yet on June 27.
In my objective opinion, I crafted three reasons why Diamond is likely to take control of the category which involves things the other artists have little to no control over.
All-time best Grammy’s winner Beyonce lost her best female BET artist prize for six years to Lizzo in 2020
History often repeats itself and in 2020, the first time nominated Lizzo Beatings made history after being named best female R&B/pop artist and beat Beyoncé, who had won 10 times in this category, including the last six years back to back.
The Wasafi boss is up against two other African artists and Grammy award winners Nigeria’s BurnaBoy and Wizkid.
Based on history, Nigeria artists have won the most awards compared to other African artists.
Although Wizkid got the award in 2012, Burna Boy bagged it twice back to back in 2019 and 2020 and they both won Grammy’s 2021.
Wizkid won Grammys 2021 for best video in his song Brown Skin Girl.
Burna Boy, on the other hand, won Best World Music Album in Grammy’s 2021 for Twice as Tall and had been nominated for the same category in 2020 for his album African Giant.
In 2020, Burna Boy won Best International Act in BET Awards against six others including South African Sho Madjozi and DRC’s Innoss’B.
He had also won in the same category in 2019 beating Nigeria’s Mr. Eazi and South Africa’s Aka among four others.
In 2018, the award was given to Nigeria’s Davido beating Congo’s Fally Ipupa and Nigeria’s Tiwa Savage and four others.
BET petition filed by Tanzanians
Bad publicity is still publicity and more often than not, celebrities eventually reap big after big scandals.
An effort by some Tanzanians to file a petition to withdraw his name from the competition was headed to an epic failure after BET totally dismissed the accusations.
This possibly worked for his benefit considering it popularized his nominations at a time when the Tanzania government called its people to support him and ensure he wins the award.
When asked to give a comment about it, Diamond smartly said; “I respect everyone’s opinions, whether they like me or insult me. I’m grateful because it means they have me in their thoughts and that’s a blessing.”
Analytics ‘numbers don’t lie‘
The Billboard Music Award is majorly determined by votes tally alongside numbers on the music often within a period of 12 months as well as general fan interaction with your music.
In this case, the Bongo artist only released two songs in 2020; Waah featuring Congo’s Koffi Olomide and was featured by Mbosso in their song Baikoko.
Waah released in November 2020 has earned over 72 million views to become his fourth most viewed song on Youtube and also one of his best songs to gather so many views within a short time.
The song gathered 55 million views within three months.
Fans interaction with Diamonds music has been the highest compared to the other nominated artists if Youtube views are anything to go by.
