Grammy’s new African category: Rejoice but…

Arnold Asamoah Baidoo Showbiz News Jun - 24 - 2023 , 09:29 6 minutes read

THE National Academy of Arts & Sciences, now the Recording Academy is responsible for the Grammy Awards, arguably the biggest music-awarding platform in the world.

For 65 years, the Recording Academy in the US have been offering prestigious honours to musicians in the USA while giving room for awarding other nationals who are able to get their records onto the US market.

Africa has over the years, enjoyed the privillege of getting recognition at the Grammys via various categories in World Music to Global Music.

The Recording Academy first offered African participation in the scheme in 1991 when it introduced the World Music categories and then altered it in 2020 to Best Global Music categories.

It’s 2023 and since 1991, Africa can now lay sole claim to a category dedicated to its genres of music and myriad of artistes, Best African Music Performance.

Not Amusing To Others

It seems as though folks in Ghana are the ones overly excited with the news especially when you consider the music industries across Africa that usually make the Grammy conversation a mainstay in music analysis.

It is quite understandable to have a chunk of Ghanaians thrilled by the news of a new category for Africa because, after all these years of having the Grammy chatter and not have one win; this seems like a win for Ghana is closer than ever.

Interestingly, folks in music-loving countries like Nigeria and South Africa are not tickled by the recent happening and that is also understandable. Without this new category, musicians from Nigeria and South Africa have garnered some of Africa’s nominations and wins over the years. This new category does very little to their ambitions when it comes to the Grammys.

For the musicians from the other African countries that have been winning in the categories of World Music and Global Music over the years, this would even seem like diminishing their influence, considering the fact that, in the past they competed with musicians from the rest of the world, whereas in this new category, they would be competing with other folks from Africa only.

The ‘Dentaa Effect’

It is not clear how the founder of GUBA, Dentaa Amoateng directly influenced the creation of the new category, but her affiliation and impact to the Recording Academy cannot be underestimated.

Eight (8) months ago, when she brought the Recording Academy CEO, Harvey Mason Jr. to Ghana, he said that prior to his visit, there’s been a stakeholders meeting to discuss the possibility of having a category for African music.

Dentaa’s ability to bring Mr. Mason here to interact with music stakeholders and most importantly, GUBA’s ability to create the first-ever African Nominees’ Brunch in the US, were moves that reinforced Africa’s drive to actually be part of the over 90 categories.

Aside all the meetings, consultations and everything else, Dentaa’s initiative of taking Africa, the culture, fashion and music to the doorsteps of the Grammys was critical in convincing the Academy that, in addition to the category getting the votes and approval from the Board of Trustees, Africa is capable.

She takes all the plaudits for her effort in making Africa relevant to the new direction of the Recording Academy.

Afrobeats, Highlife & Ghanaian Drill

According to Harvey Mason Jr., creators of the genre Afrobeats were engaged in meetings to make the category a reality. “We called in producers, songwriters, artists, executives and we had a virtual listening session where we heard from Afrobeats creators,” he said at a September 2022 news conference. We just talked about, what are the different subgenres? What are the needs? What are the desires?, “ Mr. Mason stated in a CNN report.

Clearly, the meteoric rise of Afrobeats was a driving force, considering how the genre has taken over the international music market in the last couple of years.

In 2020, the UK’s Official Charts Company launched an Afrobeats singles chart while Billboard debuted a US-based Afrobeats chart this year, amplifying the genre’s growth outside of Africa and the diaspora.

The news of a new category was met with mixed reactions in Ghana, with many excited about the mention of the Highlife genre while others were ambivalent about the inclusion of Ghanaian Drill as a genre.

The conversations that have shrouded the new category were expected but it is also worthy to note that, regardless of the rejection we give it, the number of holes we punch into the category definition or which genre could have represented Ghana better; nothing is going to change, especially when one considers the kind of effort the Recording Academy put in to facilitate the creation of this category and the approval process it had to go through to get ratified.

The conversation should predominantly be hinged on how Ghanaian artistes would be able to break the jinx and win the country its first Grammy.

Sell On The US Market

The creation of a new category for African music increases the chances of artistes from the continent who now get to compete primarily in three (3) categories of Best Global Music Album, Best Global Music Performance and Best African Music Performance as well as any other category.

However, for the Ghanaian artiste, the new category would be meaningless if they are unable to break the code, if they are unable to meet the criterion of the Recording Academy which states that, the recording(s) must be released in the US market.

It means that, if you are a Ghanaian artiste and you want eligibility into the Grammy Awards, you need your songs distributed or streamed on the US market, which also means that, you would need an international record label and distribution company to sell your music on that market.

That is the most important jigsaw that we need to solve if we wish to see a Ghanaian musician win.

The Grammys can add several categories to aid the cause of the African and Ghanaian in that regard to win more of the awards and still, we would miss if we do not work towards ensuring our music get to sell in the US.

We do so by producing songs and projecting brands that would attract international record labels and distribution companies that would market our songs in the US territory.