The recently held 63rd Grammy awards unarguably saw the Nigerian flag fly high. The night saw Burna Boy make history as the first Nigerian solo act to win the recording academy award after his album ‘Twice As Tall’ was announced as the winner of the Best Global Music category.
Prior to Burna’s win, Wizkid had earned his very first Grammy for his collaboration with Beyonce on ‘Brown Skin Girl’. The song’s video won in the Best Video category.
Away from the show’s biggest winners, star songstress Tiwa Savage and veteran Afrobeats star Femi Kuti and son, Made Kuti also got a share of the Grammy magic. The artistes got a nod for their collaboration on Coldplay’s 2019 Everyday Life album which got the Best Record Packing and Album of The Year. The Nigerian stars were featured on one of the album’s records titled ‘Arabesque‘. Despite the album’s win, Savage and the Kutis will unfortunately not be getting Grammy plaques.
This is due to the Grammys rule that only artistes with 33% participation on an album can get plaques. However, the artistes will get Grammy certificates for their effort. The recording academy’s rule states: For albums containing at least 51% playing time of new vocal or instrumental recordings. Award to Artist(s) and to Featured Artist(s), Songwriter(s) of new material, Producer(s), Recording Engineer(s), Mixer(s) and Mastering Engineer(s) credited with at least 33% playing time of the album, if other than Artist. Generally, if you participated in creating a significant portion of the album (defined as at least 33 percent of its playing time), you get a golden gramophone.“
Femi Kuti has gotten five Grammy nominations with no wins.
Credit: Sammy Kay Media