3Music Awards 2022: KiDi edges Black Sherif to win top honour

28 Mar 2022 - 15:13

Published under the Creative Commons Licence

For the second consecutive year, Afropop singer KiDi won the Artist of the Year accolade at the 2022 3Music Awards.

KiDi and Black Sherif.

The awards show, which took place at the Grand Arena in Accra, Ghana, at the weekend, saw the ‘Touch It’ hitmaker sweep five other awards, making him this year’s biggest winner. The fast-rising Black Sherif, whose name had also dominated discussions around the awards and was widely tipped to win the topmost prize, managed wins in four categories.

The awards ceremony did not commence until a few minutes before the morning of Sunday 27 March, with the organisers citing technical problems. However, a strong opening performance in which Black Sherif invoked fire and rain seemed to placate patrons, who had been muttering their frustrations for several hours.

Black Sherif’s performance started with a live rendition of the unreleased ‘Kweku the Traveller’, which is set for release this week, and climaxed with the Burna Boy-assisted remix of ‘Second Sermon’.

For his part, KiDi joined Akwaboah, Cina Soul, Camidoh and Kelvyn Boy for a colourful medley of top Ghanaian hits making their rounds at the moment. Other notable performances on the night came from Emerging Woman of the Year Award winner Mona 4Real, gospel singers Joe Mettle and Ohemaa Mercy, and rappers Kweku Darlington and Kwame Yogot. Kuami Eugene delivered a tribute to late highlife great Nana Ampadu, who died in September.

KiDi and Black Sherif have been behind some of the most outstanding moments in Ghanaian music over the past year. KiDi’s ‘Touch It’, which was recently updated with a fresh verse from US rapper Tyga, has been streamed more than 36 million times on Spotify alone. Black Sherif’s ‘Second Sermon’ and ‘First Sermon’ were the two fastest rising songs to reach 1 million streams on Boomplay last year. Both artists also recently sealed deals with American distribution company and record label EMPIRE.

Both artists made the most trips to the podium on the night, quickly bringing into focus a narrative that had dominated discussions leading up to the awards: this was a KiDi-Black Sherif showdown.

By the time the show closed in the early hours of Sunday, KiDi was on top, winning the topmost prize for a historic second time in a row, along with the Album of the Year, Reggae/Dancehall Song of the Year, Best Male Vocal Performance, Digital Act of the Year and Afrobeats/Afropop Act of the Year awards. When he went up to receive his final award, KiDi invited his rival to join him, but Black Sherif had already left the venue after winning the Hiplife/Hip Hop Act of the Year, Breakthrough Act of the Year, Hip Hop Song of the Year and Song of the Year awards.

“Thank you to the entire 3Music Awards,” KiDi tweeted hours later. “Thank you to the family, friends and fans! My entire team!!! The media support has been crazy! I’m just so humbled by this. Thank you, Ghana.”

Elsewhere, Wizkid and Tems’ ‘Essence Remix’ featuring Canadian singer Justin Beiber won the African Song of the Year Award, while Sarkodie was victorious in the Video of the Year category for ‘Rollies and Cigars’.

Below is the full list of winners:

Afrobeats/Afropop Song of the Year