Popular Nigerian singers, Wizkid and Tems, have been excluded from a list of African Grammy winners by the organisers of the prestigious award show.
The organisers of the prominent Awards put forward a list of African musicians who have gone home with a golden gramophone, a move that was done ahead of the 66th Grammy Awards which will be happening on February 4, 2023.
Kemi Filani confirms that the event would be available to watch live on CBS and later on Paramount Plus.
The late South African singer Miriam Makeba led the list as the first African to win a Grammy for “Best Folk Recording” (together with Harry Belafonte) in 1966. Sade Adu, a pop singer from Nigeria, was the first Nigerian to win the award for “Best New Artist” in 1986.
Burna Boy, who was the 2021 winner of the “Best Global Music Album” award, was the second-to-last name on the list.
However, what shocked many social media users, including Wizkid and Tems’ fans is that, the list of only 10 names did not contain Wizkid and Tems.
Kemi Filani recalls that, Wizkid in 2021, won his first-ever Grammy award for his role in Beyonce’s 2019 ‘Brown Skin Girl’, in the ‘Best Music Video’ category while in 2022, Tems won her first-ever Grammy award in the ‘Best Melodic Rap Performance’ category for her role in ‘Wait for U’, the hit song by Future featuring Drake.
See full list as released by Grammy below:
Miriam Makeba (South Africa) — Best Folk Recording (with Harry Belafonte) – 1966
Sade Adu (Nigeria/UK) — Best New Artist – 1986
Ali Farka Touré (Mali) — Best World Music Album – 1994
Cesária Évora (Cape Verde) — Best Contemporary World Music Album – 2004
Youssou N’Dour (Senegal) — Best Contemporary World Music Album – 2005
Angélique Kidjo (Benin/France) — Best Contemporary World Music Album – 2008
RedOne (Morocco) — Best Dance/Electronic Album – 2010
Tinariwen (Mali/Algeria/Libya) — Best World Music Album – 2012
Burna Boy (Nigeria) — Best Global Music Album – 2021
Black Coffee (South Africa) – Best Dance/ Electronic Album — 2022
“Femi Kuti, King Sunny Adé, Babatunde Olatunji, and his rival WizKid had all received GRAMMY nods before Burna Boy became the first Nigerian male artist to grab a golden gramophone for original work. The Afrobeats megastar earned the prize for Best World Music Album in 2021 for his album Twice as Tall.” The award organisers wrote about Nigeria’s Burna Boy.
