On May 24, The Headies released the list of nominees and their categories ahead of the 15th year of the annual award show set to hold on September 4 this year. 

In the ongoing series, Document Women touches on the illustrious women who have been nominated for the annual event. This week, we have the Afro-house star Niniola and the sweet voiced record-breaking Simi.

Niniola

She is popularly known for her Afrohouse genre of music – a blend of Afro beats and house music – and energetic onstage and music video performances. 

Niniola, born and raised in Lagos, Nigeria, is a bachelor degree holder from the University of Lagos. In her teens, she participated in singing and dancing competitions and it was no surprise when she came out top three in the 6th edition of the MTN’s hit TV show Project Fame. 

In 2018, she released Maradona which earned her a nomination in the 2018 BET Awards and SAMA Awards. In 2019, Maradona was sampled in Beyoncé’s The Lion King: The Gift, this  earned Niniola a Grammy nomination certificate as a composer in the body of work and another Grammy nomination certificate in 2020 for same recognition. She also got inducted into the Grammy Recording Academy Class of 2021.

Niniola has been nominated previously for four awards at The Headies and again this year for Best RnB Single. 

Simi

The Lagos born singer and songwriter started out her music career in 2006 as a gospel artiste being a member of her church choir at the time. She studied Mass Communications at Convenant University and started pursuing music right after. 

In 2014, Simisola Ogunleye bagged a record deal with X3M Music right after the release of her EP Restless which consisted mostly of covers of popular songs from international acts. Once she left X3M Music, Simi launched her record label, Studio Brat in 2019 and has since then officially added sound engineer and actress to her other titles of singer and songwriter. She is credited for mixing and mastering Adekunle Gold’s 2016 debut album Gold. 

Simi has been nominated for Best Breakthrough Act at the MTV Africa Music Awards and nominated previously in thre categories at The Headies and winning one. This year she has been nominated for Best RnB Single. Simi was also a judge on this past season of The Nigerian Idol singing competition. 

Simi is known to be vocal on social media in her advocacy for equal treatment of women in the society and recently released a song titled Woman dedicated to the problem of inequality. 

On July 10, Simi became the first female artiste to reach 100 million streams on Boomplay. Simi had earlier set a record as the first African female artist to reach 100 million streams on Audiomack.

In our last episode, Document Women highlighted the Queen of Afrobeats, Tiwa Savage and soulful singer, Falana.