Nigeria’s Afrobeats stars are assured of a comeback at next year’s Grammy Awards, after winning a clean sweep of nominations for “Best African Musical Performance”.
February’s ceremony will mark only the second time the category has been awarded, and this year’s debut saw Nigerian talent pushed aside by South Africa’s Tyla.
But all five tracks in the running next year are from Nigeria or performed with Nigerian artists, guaranteeing revenge.
This week’s nominations were for “Higher” by Burna Boy, “Love Me JeJe” by Tems, “MMS” by Asake and Wizkid and “Tomorrow” by Yemi Alade.
The fifth song on the list is Chris Brown’s “Sensational”, on which the American artist is accompanied by Nigerian performers Davido and Lojay.
Tems became the first Nigerian singer to win a Grammy in 2023 after she co-wrote Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up” for the soundtrack of the movie “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever”.
In addition to her nomination in the 2025 African performance category, she is now also shortlisted for “Best International Album”, as is fellow Nigerian Rema.
According to streaming site Spotify, afrobeats — a mix of traditional rhythms and modern pop — is one of the world’s most popular musical genres.
Music fans listened to 223 million hours of the music on 7.1 billion streams in 2023.
Afrobeats has its roots in the afrobeat (no ‘s’) pioneered by Nigerian megastar Fela Kuti in 1970s Lagos and has been influenced by international hip-hop and rhythm and blues.
Exported to the West African diaspora in Britain and the United States, the genre is breaking through into the international mainstream and music awards circuit.
Music is also one of the many spheres of rivalry between Nigeria and fellow African cultural giant South Africa, which is exporting its “amapiano” sound.
South Africa’s Tyla and her song “Water” beat four Nigerian artists to snatch this year’s African performance Grammy, but she has no nominations for next year’s awards.
By AFP
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