February 5, 2024
The 2024 Grammy Awards saw the introduction of the “Best African Music Performance” category. However, observations reveal that the category overlooks a significant portion of the music originating from the continent.
The 2024 Grammy Awards witnessed the debut of the “Best African Music Performance” category. However, further analysis indicates that the category fails to encompass a wide range of music emerging from the continent.
Last year, Grammys CEO Harvey Mason Jr. announced the new category as a means to “acknowledge and appreciate a broader array of artists” compared to the previous two global Grammy categories, which mainly favored African artists for nominations, as per NPR reports.
Tyla clinched the award for her hit single “Water” on Sunday night. While the category aimed to amplify music from Africa, it only featured nominees from Nigeria, represented by Burna Boy, Davido, Ayra Starr, and Asake & Olamide, and South Africa, with Tyla and producer Musa Keys, who collaborated on Davido’s track.
The Academy indicated various genres they sought to include in the category, such as chimurenga (traditional Zimbabwean thumb-piano music played on electric instruments) and Ethio-jazz (a fusion of Amharic melodies from Ethiopia with 12-note jazz scales). However, the final list of nominees comprised artists who released Afrobeats and Amapiano, two prevalent African music styles.
The nominated artists only hailed from cities in Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy, or South Africa, the continent’s third-largest economy. This leaves out a considerable portion of the continent, which is home to an estimated population of 1,494,993,924 people speaking over 2,000 languages. Notably, the lyrics of the seven songs nominated in the category are predominantly in English or entirely in English.
“These two nations— Nigeria and South Africa— are not the only ones in African music. Africa is diverse in cultures, languages and music. I don’t even know Burna Boy. I’ve never listened to him,” remarked Aziza Brahim, a respected “desert blues” singer from the displaced Sahrawi people in the disputed Western Sahara region.
Artists like Burna Boy have garnered significant success as African artists. He received four Grammy nominations in 2024 and won one in 2021 for the Best Global Music Album for his album, Twice As Tall. With international stardom and sold-out shows in the U.S. and U.K., other African artists ponder whether his commercial triumph overshadows musicians emerging from the continent.
“I feel like there’s some laziness with the Global Grammys,” expressed Tunisian singer Emel Mathlouthi.
“Once the Grammy voters find an artist that fits within the global category, that artist will continue to be present. There isn’t a significant effort to be truly representative of diverse individuals globally.”
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