The Nigerian music industry has been doing exploit across the world, representing the nation in global stage.
Also, Afrobeats has been seeing globally with Nigerian mainstream music enjoying massive popularity, with the stars behind the music, winning prestigious awards, and selling out choice venues.
However, the growing presence of Nigerian artists in the Grammy Award nominations list this year is impressive.
Way back in history, King Sunny Ade has long been a fixture at the award earning his first nomination in 1983 in the Best Ethnic or Traditional Folk Recording category for his album Synchro System.
He earned his second nomination in 1999 for his album ‘Odu’ for Best Global Album.
Years later, the celebrated drummer, Sikiriu Adepoju became the first Nigerian to win a Grammy in 2008 when he won for his contributions to the ‘World Drum Project’.
And of course, The Kutis have 8 global categories nominations between them with Femi Kuti leading the family with 6.
Since Burna Boy earned his first nomination in 2019 and picked up his first Grammy award in 2021 for Best Global Album (Twice As Tall), more Nigerian Pop artists have thrown their hats in the Grammy ring.
Wizkid and Tems have both earned multiple nominations with the former winning for Beyonce’s ‘Brown Skin Girl’ in the Best Music Video category and the latter for Best Melodic Rap Performance for her part in Future’s ‘Wait For U’.
At the upcoming 66th Grammy Awards, 5 Nigerians are nominated across four categories which is a record for the Nigerian music industry.
Ayra Starr, Burna Boy, Asake & Olamide, and Davido are all nominated in the newly minted category, Best African Song Performance. South Africa’s Tyla is also nominated for Water in the category.
Best African Song Performanc
• Asake & Olamide – Amapiano
• Ayra Starr – Rush
• Burna Boy – City Boys
• Davido featuring Musa Keys – Unavailable
• Tyla – Water
Best Global Music Album
• Bokanté – History
• Burna Boy – I Told Them…
• Davido – Timeless
• Shakti – This Moment
• Susana Baca – Epifanías
This is a category that is still firmly within the grip of artists who make traditional-styled music.
By traditional styled music, we are referring to the type of African music that predated the creation of Afrobeats which is West African pop music that combines foreign influences like Hip Hop, Dancehall, and R&B with indigenous African genres Highlife, Folk, Fuji, Apala, among others.
Although Fela’s Afrobeat was a mainstream music that combined Jazz and Funk with Highlife, it has since become part of Nigeria’s indigenous sound that predated Afrobeats which is shaped by multiple foreign influences.
Since the creation of the Best Global Album category Non-mainstream African music and its global counterparts have continued to make make up the nominees.
The only outlier in the history of the category is Burna Boy’s ‘Twice As Tall’ who won in 2021 after he lost his first nomination in 2020 with ‘African Giant’.
Burna Boy lost to multi-Grammy winner Angelique Kidjo’s ‘Celia’ in 2020 and in 2022, Wizkid’s critically acclaimed ‘Made In Lagos’ also lost to Kidjo’s ‘Mother Nature’. Burna Boy’s attempt in 2023 with ‘Love, Damini’ was hindered by Japanese multi-instrumentalist Masanori Takumi whose traditional album ‘Sakura’ was favoured.
One of the nominees for this year is 80-year-old Susana Baca, a folk artist and a former Peruvian Minister for Culture. She has won three Latin Grammy Awards but is yet to pick up a Grammy award and Epifanías makes a strong case for her.
Bokanté are musicians from Guadalupe, Sweden, Japan, and the USA who make music in French and Creole. ‘History’ is their second Grammy nomination and it explores significant folkloric drums from North Africa, West Africa, and Arabia.
The album is the type of traditional music voters favour in the global album category.
‘This Moment’ is Shakti’s first release in 46 years and it combines Indian sounds with elements of Jazz.
Going by the history of the category, both Davido’s ‘Timeless’ and Burna Boy’s ‘I Told Them’ have an uphill battle if they are to pick up the award.
Best Global Song Performance
• Arooj Aftab, Vijay Iyer & Shahzad Ismaily – Shadow Forces
• Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer & Zakir Hussain Featuring Rakesh Chaurasia – Pashto
• Burna Boy – Alone
• Davido – Feel
• Falu & Gaurav Shah (Featuring PM Narendra Modi) – Abundance in Millets
• Ibrahim Maalouf Featuring Cimafunk & Tank and the Bangas – Todo Colores
• Silvana Estrada – Milagro y Disastre
This is another category that has consistently favoured traditional music over mainstream Pop music.
In the maiden edition in 2022, Wizkid’s ‘Essence’ featuring Tems lost to Pakistani folk & Jazz act Arooj Aftab’s ‘Mohabbat’ on a night she was also in contention for Best New Artist.
In 2023, Burna Boy’s smash hit ‘Last Last’ was lost to ‘Bayethe’ by South African flautist Wouter Kellerman, producer Zakes Bantwini and singer Nomcebo Zikode in a South African folk record.
Best Melodic Rap Performance
• Burna Boy Featuring 21 Savage – Sittin’ on Top of the World
• Doja Cat – Attention
• Drake & 21 Savage – Spin Bout U
• Lil Durk Featuring J. Cole – All My Life
• SZA – Low
In this category, Lil Durk has the commercially biggest song ‘All My Life’ featuring J Cole. The song peaked at NO. 2 on the Billboard Hot 100 which is the highest charting of any of the nominated songs.
Last year, the category was won by Future’s chart-topping hit ‘Wait For U’ featuring Drake & Tems, and Lil Durk’s ‘All My Life’ has similar commercial qualities to win the category.
Drake & 21 Savage’s ‘Spin Bout U’ off their commercially acclaimed album ‘Her Loss’ is also a strong contender, especially for the album’s impact.
Doja Cat was the rapper with the highest sales in 2023 and her single ‘Attention’ will be a dark horse. SZA’s nine nominations is the highest at the 66th Grammy Awards and if she is to break the record for most wins in one night, she will need to beat Burna Boy to the prize for Best Melodic Rap Performance.
In conclusion, precedents offer an insight into the way voters will swing, but one cannot definitively say how the Nigerian contingent will perform at the 66th Grammy Awards.
Nigerians will have to hope for the best as we eagerly await the ceremony on February 5, 2024.
