2020 has been a year full of ups and downs but one major up it did bring is the enlightenment of one of the brightest stars in the music industry right now in Omah Lay. Another major up the year has brought is the unexpected rise of BBN Season 5 winner, Laycon.

By now, if you do not know either of the aforementioned individuals or musicians or online personalities, then it’s either you just choose to live in an ET world of yours or you are just playing dumb (which is a more likely option).

Omah Lay, the rhythmic and smooth singer blew up in May upon the release of his debut EP, “Get Layd” while Laycon got mainstream recognition as a contestant, turned eventual winner of the Big Brother Naija show.

To Laycon’s credit, he did release an EP before his entry into the house, titled “Who Is Laycon?”. Both EPs got positive reviews from fans and critics.

The Headies Awards 2020 however have opened that spot again for the yearly argument on who should go home with the ‘Next Rated’ award. The award show organisers have called for submission of music related works form artistes and their click and this has sprung up the debate on who should win the ‘Next Rated’ award.

The ‘Next Rated’ award is set up basically for the year’s breakout talents musically speaking. Likely nominees should be: Oxlade, Bella Shmurda, Omah Lay and (by recent debate) Laycon.

But the two prospect that have caught fans are Omah Lay and Laycon, bringing all sorts of reasoning on who should be the winner for this year’s award.

I won’t be picking a side but I will just try to highlight major achievements and who I THINK might win the category at the end of the day. Let’s start with Omah Lay.

Omah Lay
• Major Release:
– Get Layd EP
• Major Recognition / Award:
– Debut African Rising Artist on Apple
– BET Amplified International Artist for November; Signed to Warner Music
– AFRIMMA nominee for ‘Best New Comer’
• Major Collaboration:
– “Damn” remix with 6lack
– “Infinity” with Olamide
– “Pami” with Wizkid, Adekunle Gold & Dj Tunez
• Top Songs:
– Damn
– Ye Ye Ye
– Bad Influence

Laycon
• Major Release:
– Who Is Laycon? EP
• Major Recognition / Award:
– BBN Season 5 winner
– OPPO and Orijin brand and ambassadorial deals
• Major Collaboration:
– “Nobody” Icon remix with DJ Neptune
– “Fierce” with Reminisce
• Top Songs:
– Fierce
– HipHop
– Who Is Laycon?

Judging by their individual accolades and accomplishments so far, it is easy to ascertain who has done more on the music scene in 2020 and that would be no other than Omah Lay but judging by who has got more achieved outside the music scene and quite alright to say who has secured the bag, then it would definitely be Laycon.

Since the argument is on who deserves to be ‘Next Rated’ artiste for the year 2020, my choice would be Omah Lay and that will be because before his EP he was almost unknown and with little to no promo or co-signs from any major A-list or even B-list artiste.

Yes on Laycon’s part, no one obviously knew him before the BBN show, but on getting there, from his appearance outfit to his PR, he was set on promoting the hell out himself and his craft – his music – and that he successfully did; in less three two months of being on the show, his EP gained over 1 million streams and that can be traced to the fact that he was always on our screens for over 12 weeks and his relateable personality.

On Omah Lay’s part, his EP only had two options, Make It or Break It but thankfully, the former was the case and unlike Laycon he wasn’t on our screens that often and with the volume of music released daily, his could have easily got swallowed by the wave but no, it stood the test of time, becoming fans favourite and that is solely the reason I’m picking him to be the likely winner.

But let’s not forget the fact, Laycon won the very much competitive BBN and going by that, the ‘Next Rated’ is open to voting so it won’t be easy for Laycon to loose as we already saw by the wide margin in voting for the BBN reality show.

Note it’s just my verdict and any of them might turn up to be eventual winners or even might not win, only time can tell.