Even without a proper music industry, Nigerian music continues to garner attention beyond it's shores and many of our artistes cannot be ignored. Last Tuesday in Johannesburg, South Africa, nominations for the 2009 Channel O Music Video Awards were unveiled and Nigeria topped the list with nominations in nine of the 14 categories. Darey and Naeto C led the pack with double nominations for their 'Not the girl' and 'Kini Big Deal' videos while Sasha's 'Only One', was the only Nigerian representative in the Best Female Video category. It was not surprising that P-Square and D'banj (together with Mo Hits Crew) were recognised in the Best Duo or Group category for their efforts in 'No One Like You' and 'Pere' respectively. Of the six spots available in the Best Africa West category, Nigeria comfortably picked four finding representations with Ikechukwu's Shoobeedoo, Jay Martin's Good or Bad, Nneka's Heartbeat and 9ice's Street Credibility. New comers GXploits and Steel found their voice also, being nominated in the Best R N B and Best Afro Pop categories respectively with their Tear Rubber and Omoge individual singles. Even banned videos in Nigeria were nominated. 2 Face's Enter the place featuring Sound Sultan and Kelly Hansome's Maga Don Pay were nominated in the Best Afro Pop and Best R N B video categories. It is however surprising that the Best Nigerian dance video did not make it into the Best Dance category, talking about P-Square's Roll It, and notably no Nigerian Hip Hop video was good enough for nomination in the Best Hip Hop category. However, the other three categories which Nigeria did not pick up nominations were not open to Nigerian music. The three being; Best Kwaito (newly introduced), Best African South and Best African East categories. The only Ghanaian nominees are Okyeame Kwame (who had nominations for Best Hip Hop Video, Best African West and Video of the Year) and Kwaku T and D-Black - Move (Best African West). The fifth annual Channel O Awards is coming up at Carnival City, Guateng, on Thursday, 29th October 2009. Story by Aglanu Dela Ernest/myjoyonline/Ghana with additional files from Vanguard(Nigeria)