The introduction of a dedicated award category recognizes the surging influence and global recognition of African music, transcending borders and cultures.
In December of last year, the Recording Academy held a listening session involving artists, label executives, and stakeholders from the United States and Africa. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the growing influence of music from Africa. This several-hour-long meeting played a crucial role in the decision to introduce a new category at the upcoming 66th Grammy Awards on February 4th: Best African Music Performance.
“There’s a threshold that you like to see for a genre of music before it actually could make for a healthy category,” says academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., who led the meeting alongside global music genre manager Shawn Thwaites. “When you talk about music coming from Africa, you’re seeing Afrobeats grow, you’re seeing amapiano and other genres coming out of the continent over the last three to five years. That started the discussions around, ‘Is it the right time?’ ”
The new category reflects the growing commercial and cultural appeal of music by African artists in the United States. The growth of this category has been remarkable in recent years, with significant milestones achieved: Davido's 2017 single “Fall” became the first Nigerian song to be certified gold in the United States by the RIAA in 2020; Wizkid and Tems’ “Essence” became the first Afropop song to reach the top 10 of the Billboard Hot 100 in 2021; Burna Boy’s album Love, Damini debuted at No. 14 on the Billboard 200 in 2022, making it the highest-charting Afro-fusion album in chart history. Additionally, in May, Rema and Selena Gomez’s “Calm Down” became the first song to top both the U.S. Afrobeats Songs and Pop Airplay charts, and it peaked at No. 3 on the Hot 100.
“I don’t think currently there’s better or more advanced music being made anywhere outside the continent,” says Seni Saraki, CEO and editor-in-chief of The NATIVE Networks, the Lagos, Nigeria-based media and content company that launched a joint venture with Def Jam in September 2022. “From what we call Afrobeats — which is, really, just popular music from Nigeria — through amapiano, the rap music, Afropop, I genuinely think this is some of the most exciting music in the world right now. And the academy is becoming cognizant of that.”
The new category is an attempt to address the controversy surrounding the global music album award. In 2020, the award was renamed from Best World Music Album due to concerns about "connotations of colonialism." However, it is still perceived as a catchall for non-Western music. Recognizing the increasing global nature of the music industry, the academy decided to create a category specifically for music from the African continent. This category goes beyond the popularity of Afrobeats, which is itself an umbrella term. The academy identified around 30 different genres that could qualify for the category, including alté, fuji, and high life.
“People know about Afrobeats and they’re learning about amapiano, but they don’t realize there are so many other genres on the continent that are underserved, and they can’t just be put in a bulk category called ‘world music,’ ” says Tina Davis, president of EMPIRE, which has invested heavily in African music and artists. “And much respect to the Recording Academy because they actually took the time to want to find out. [Mason] went to the continent to just learn more about it.”
The industry has also taken notice. In recent years, there has been a surge in new signings, joint ventures, and licensing deals for African artists and labels by U.S.-based companies and distributors. This has led to the emergence of a new generation of stars such as Rema, Asake, and Ayra Starr, who have joined the ranks of the continent's established hit-makers.
“There was a time a few years ago when I was at RCA and it seemed like we were the only ones on it,” says Def Jam chairman/CEO Tunji Balogun, who signed Tems and worked closely with Wizkid and Davido while an A&R executive at RCA and has since signed Adekunle Gold and Stonebwoy to Def Jam. “Now every week, there’s another label signing someone. The budgets are open.”
“I think you see more labels paying attention to it, you see the marketplace paying more attention to it; there’s a spotlight on it,” RCA co-president John Fleckenstein says. “The Grammys are the big leagues of awards, one of those artistic validations that many artists dream about. It’s a bit of an awakening that we are more global than we’ve ever been.”
However, there is some hesitation regarding the new category. In the past, artists from genres such as hip-hop, R&B, VP, and certain Latin sectors have viewed genre categories as limiting their music and preventing them from being considered for more prestigious general-field categories like Song, Record, or Album of the Year. Additionally, the category of Best African Music Performance, although appreciated, is quite broad, encompassing a continent with 54 countries and 1.4 billion people.
“It’s a really important moment for the Grammys,” says Temi Adeniji, managing director of Warner Music Africa and senior vp of strategy for Sub-Saharan Africa. “But then the next step is, how do you actually roll this thing out? Even regionally — East Africa, Southern Africa, West Africa — it would be great to see a diversity of nominees, and that would reflect a real understanding from the Grammys of how large the continent is and how diverse the sounds that are coming out.”
Talks of adding additional categories for African music, along with the potential establishment of an African Grammys, could be indicative of a future that Mason believes is only beginning with this category.
“We want to serve music people, regardless of where they are,” he says. “I don’t know what that means yet, but we will continue to try and make sure that we are reaching as many music people regardless of their geography.”
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