Who should be counted by Africa? ncvrs.com

Grammy Awards have a separate place for African music, but only one year after the introduction of the category is disputed.

The best African music performance debuted with South Africa’s Tyla, a mixture of Song Water, South Africa Amapiano and Afropop.

It was a step welcomed in the industry, especially African artists.

However, this year’s prize has raised an eyebrow, especially with US R&B star Chris Brown.

The 35-year-old man was nominated for the only sensational part of Chart-Toping, which includes Afrobeats elements and contains songs from Nigerian artists, Davido and Lojay guests.

However, the American artist’s participation in an African music category provoked a debate.

Should non-African artists be considered in a category aimed at presenting African talents?

“Music is about inclusive. We do not want people to make people from genres,” says Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr to the BBC.

“If we start deciding who can or can’t make a kind of music, we lose the essence of creativity.”

The head of the Grammys explains that such cross-fertilization is expected.

“We’ve seen Latin before, we’ve seen it with K-Pop, and now we’re starting to see Afrobeats and Amapiano,” he says.

“We would like to respect all the music (no matter where it comes from or who makes it. If it is excellent, we want to celebrate it.”

Another controversial bone this year is the dominance of Afrobeats, which are roots in Nigeria and Ghana.

There is a feeling that Grammy’s continue to focus on excluding other African music genres, despite inclusive calls.

Nigerian music journalist Ayomide Tayo says he understands why Afrobeats dominates this year’s awards.

“I don’t think Afrobeats is better,” he says to the BBC.

“It’s just that Afrobeats had more than three decades of exposure. Our Constartan is great music, superstars and events that attract the world,” explains Tayo in Lagos.

The Nigerians living abroad also played a decisive role in promoting Afrobeats.

“One of the most important factors in the Nigerian diaspora in England and North America is why Afrobeats exploded in Europe and the United States,” says Tayo.

While other African -based music business professionals see a bright future for other African music genres, saying that this year could be once.

For example, Amapiano, a genre that exceeded 1.4 billion stream in Spotify’s music application in 2023.

According to Raphael Benza, head of Vth Season, based in Johannesburg, the best African performance is contrary to the most important African performance.

“It comes from Amapiano’s home, I would say (musicians) are doing a very good job, and I think you will see next year that Amapiano artists will be nominated in this category,” he says to the BBC.

The best African music performance category has been introduced to respect Africa’s growing effect on global music.

When Tyla won, he defeated Nigerian heavyweights like Davido and Burna Boy and settled on the international stage.

Since then, a 22-year-old man has been noticed at the New York Met Gala and is included in the most important fashion magazines, proving that the Grammys effect is real.

However, this year’s candidates have almost entirely switched to Nigerian artists, jointly with Yemi Alade, Burna Boy, Tems and Asae & Wizkid, and Davido and Lojay, which is on Chris Brown’s hit.

“In order to be fair to Chris Brown, he has been investing in Afrobeats and African music for a long time,” says Tayo, explaining that the American musician flew to Nigeria to work with Davido and Wizkid.

“We have an internal joke in Nigeria to say that Chris Brown is Nigerian because it appears in the songs and always appears in our music videos.”

Last month, two huge sales concerts were held on a 90,000-seat stadium in Johannesburg and people traveled from South Africa to watch their performance, which is electric.

African musicians have long won the GramMys Best African Music Lecture Award.

South -Fricika Mariam Make was the first to win a -best folk footage -in 1966 for her cooperation with Harry Belaa -Fontte, simply called the evening with Belafontte/Make.

After 1992, African artists became more and more the best, with the introduction of the best world music album.

This category has undergone various obstacles over the years, including distribution to traditional and contemporary world music awards, and is now called the best global music album.

More award winners include Angélique Kidjo, Youssou N’Dour, Ali Farka Touré and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

But African musicians often broke out of this category, won the best dance/electronic album in the Black Coffee of SouthAfrica in 2022.

The hope is that, in order to overcome the dominance of Afrobeats, several African categories will be offered in Gramms in the coming years.

This covers the growing popularity of African music worldwide – and more reflects the huge number of musical styles produced in Africa.