January 30, (THEWILL) – The names of Ayodeji Balogun, aka Wizkid, and Temilade Openiyi, aka Tems, are noticeably missing from the list containing African singers who have won Grammy Awards.
Ahead of its 66th Grammy Awards on February 4, the organisers recently shared a list of African musicians who have taken home golden gramophones since the 1960s.
According to the list, Miriam Makeba, the late South African singer, remained the first from Africa to win a Grammy award.
Sade Adu, the pop singer, followed in the list, making her the first Nigerian to win the global award while Burna Boy is the most recent and last Nigerian to win the prestigious gong.
Below are the 10 winners from Africa, according to the Grammys:
Miriam Makeba (South Africa) — Best Folk Recording (with Harry Belafonte) – 1966
Sade Adu (Nigeria/UK) — Best New Artist – 1986
Ali Farka Touré (Mali) — Best World Music Album – 1994
Cesária Évora (Cape Verde) — Best Contemporary World Music Album – 2004
Youssou N’Dour (Senegal) — Best Contemporary World Music Album – 2005
Angélique Kidjo (Benin/France) — Best Contemporary World Music Album – 2008
RedOne (Morocco) — Best Dance/Electronic Album – 2010
Tinariwen (Mali/Algeria/Libya) — Best World Music Album – 2012
Burna Boy (Nigeria) — Best Global Music Album – 2021
Black Coffee (South Africa) – Best Dance/ Electronic Album — 2022
The list has, however, stirred an unending pot of controversy on social media platforms due to the exclusion of the two.
On March 14, 2021, Wizkid won his first-ever Grammy award for his role in ‘Brown Skin Girl’, a 2019 song by Beyonce, the American musician. The project won the ‘Best Music Video’ category.
The ‘Ojuelegba’ hitmaker feat came at about the same time when Burna Boy won his first Grammy award, clinching the ‘Best Global Music Album’ category for ‘Twice As Tall‘, his 2020 project.
In 2023, Tems bagged her first-ever Grammy award. The Afrobeats singer won the ‘Best Melodic Rap Performance’ category for her role in ‘Wait for U’, the 2022 hit song by Future featuring Drake.
However, while clarifying Wizkid and Damini Ogulu, aka Burna Boy’s Grammy status, the award organisers wrote: “Femi Kuti, King Sunny Adé, Babatunde Olatunji, and his rival WizKid had all received GRAMMY nods before Burna Boy became the first Nigerian male artiste to grab a golden gramophone for an original work. The Afrobeats megastar earned the prize for Best World Music Album in 2021 for his album ‘Twice as Tall.’”
The statement implied that although Wizkid received a nomination, he is yet to win a Grammy while Burna Boy was praised for being the first Nigerian male artiste to grab a golden gramophone for an original work.
The 2024 Grammy Awards will be held on Sunday, February 4, at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles.
The award organisers also introduced the ‘Best African Music Performance’ category to specifically honour African artistes.
Asake, Olamide, Tems, Burna Boy, Olamide, and Ayra Starr are nominated in the category.
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