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Scheduled to be held on the 2nd of February, the Grammys season is once again at hand, and the spate of events that typically speckle the days leading to the awards night have begun taking place. Billie Eilish, Shakira, Chapelle Roan, Lady Gaga, and Bruno Mars have been announced as performers. Trevor Noah has been […]
Scheduled to be held on the 2nd of February, the Grammys season is once again at hand, and the spate of events that typically speckle the days leading to the awards night have begun taking place. Billie Eilish, Shakira, Chapelle Roan, Lady Gaga, and Bruno Mars have been announced as performers. Trevor Noah has been announced as the host of the event, for the fifth consecutive year. The Crypto.com Arena has also been announced as the venue. Nigerian music had a notably understated international run in 2024, however for all the lull that defined most of the year, eight Nigerians snagged nominations this year—Yemi Alade, Lojay, Davido, Wizkid, Asake, BurnaBoy, Tems, and Rema—a bump from last year’s tally of five. With the awards at such close distance, it’s worth considering the Nigerians nominated, the historical antecedents that foreshadowed their nominations, and their respective prospects of winning.
Best African Music Performance
Launched in 2024, this category was created in response to the growing demand for greater representation of African music at the Grammys, as African music increasingly made inroads into the global cultural consciousness. Last year, five Nigerian acts—Burna Boy, Davido, Ayra Starr, Asake, and Olamide—clinched nominations in the category, but lost out to South Africa’s Tyla, much to the furor of Nigerian pop enthusiasts. This year, the nominations list is exclusively composed of Nigerians (bar Chris Brown), so zealots can rest assured that the award is coming home this time. The competition is however keenly contested and every candidate has a shot at winning. Yemi Alade with Tomorrow; Asake and Wizkid with MMS; Chris Brown, Davido, and Lojay with Sensational. Burna Boy with Higher; and Tems with Love Me Jeje.
Given the novelty of the category, there are hardly any historical precedents to gauge the award board’s inclinations. However, Tems appears to be the strongest contender. A Grammy winner with a plenitude of nominations to her name, the awarding committee is well acquainted with her. Stretching back to its inception, the Grammys, as do most awards, have shown a predilection for previous winners and nominees. The optics of a Tems win is also too shimmering to pass up: a young African woman on the rise, with an inimitable sound that is as global as it is Nigerian.
Best Global Music Album
This category is one with a deep history with Nigeria, with an extensive array of Nigerian acts—The Kutis, King Sunny Ade, Wizkid, and Davido, amongst others—having been nominated in the category. At the 63rd Grammy Awards in 2021, Burna Boy made history by becoming the first Nigerian to win in the category with his Twice As Tall album, after an interminable stretch of Nigerian nominations. This year, two Nigerians are nominated: Tems for Born in The Wild, and Rema with Heis.
Predicting the winner in this category or commenting on the winning prospects of the nominated candidates is a tricky situation, given Nigeria’s fraught history with this category. In 2020, given Burna Boy’s hectoring gambits with his African Giant album in the months leading to the awards, the Pan-African slant of the project, as well as its sheer brilliance, many surmised that he had all but won the award and that the actual awarding would merely be a formality. So when he lost the award to Angelique Kidjo, the Afrobeats community was palpably stunned. BurnaBoy, according to the lyrics of Level Up, the opening track of his Grammy-winning album Twice as Tall, was sullen for a long stretch about the snub. In 2022, the situation repeated itself in the form of Wizkid’s Made in Lagos.
Rema’s Heis and Matt B’s Alkebulan II appear to be the leading candidates this year. Interestingly, both albums are genre-bending variations of Afrobeats, melding the distinctive signature of Afrobeats with a wide-ranging assortment of styles. Heis edges out Alkebulan II in commercial acclaim and experimentation. Alkebulan II however features live instrumentation from Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and profound lyricism that reads like the poetry of a sage. Rema has a formidable chance of making history as the second Nigerian to win in this category, but to do that he’d have to parry Matt B and the other nominees.
Best RnB Song
Tems’ nomination in this category with Burning from her Born in the Wild album is a milestone in itself. It represents Nigeria’s only nomination in a major category this year and the first Nigerian nomination in this category. Tems goes against Kehlani’s After Hours, Coco Jones Here We Go, Muni Long’s Ruined Me, and SZA’s Saturn. All of which is to say she’s going against some of the most formidable characters in RnB. As regards quality, Burning holds its own against the other contenders and frankly leaves some in the dust. But edging out American contenders in a major category would be difficult. Win or lose, however, she’s already won for flying Nigeria’s banner in a major category and achieving the milestone of being the first Nigerian to have been nominated in this category.
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