Who should count as African?

The Grammy Awards have a space dedicated to African music, but just a year after the introduction of the category, it is already controversial.

The best African musical performance made its debut with Tyla’s victory in South Africa for its successful song Water, a mixture of South African Amapiano and Afropop.

It was a decision welcomed in industry, especially by African artists.

But this year’s prize appointments have raised the eyebrows, in particular with the inclusion of the American R&B star Chris Brown.

The 35 -year -old man was nominated for his sensational single, which incorporates Afrobeats elements and presents invited voices of Nigerian artists Davido and Lojay.

However, the participation of an American artist in a category of African music has sparked a certain debate.

Should non-African artists be taken into account in a category intended to present African talents?

“Music is a question of inclusiveness. We do not want to close people in genres,” said Harvey Mason Jr, CEO of Grammy, at the BBC.

“If we start to decide who can or cannot make a certain type of music, we lose the essence of creativity.”

The Grammys’ head explains that such a cross fertilization is expected.

“We have already seen him with Latin, we saw him with K-Pop and now you are starting to see him with Afrobeats and Amapiano,” he said.

“We like to honor all the music [regardless of] where he comes from or who does it. If it’s excellent, we want to celebrate it. “”

Another discord this year is the domination of Afrobeats, which has its roots in Nigeria and Ghana.

There is a feeling that the grammys remain too focused on it, excluding other kinds of African music, despite the calls for inclusiveness.

Nigerian music journalist Ayomide Tayo says he understands why Afrobeats dominates this year’s prices.

“I don’t think Afrobeats is better,” he said to the BBC.

“It’s just that Aprobeats had more than three decades of exhibition. We have always pushed great music, the superstars and the events that attracted the world,” said Tayo, based in Lagos.

Nigerians living abroad also played a crucial role in the popularization of Afrobeats.

“The Nigerian diaspora in England and North America is one of the key factors for which AfroBeats has exploded in Europe and the United States,” said Tayo.

While other African-based music professionals see a brilliant future for other kinds of African music, saying that this year could be a single-off.

For example, Amapiano, a genre which in 2023 exceeded 1.4 billion flows on the Spotify music application.

Raphael Benza, chief of the record label based in Johannesburg, VTH season, says that the best African name performance goes against the Pigeon.

“Coming from Amapiano’s home, I would say [musicians] Do a very good job and I think that next year, you will see Amapiano artists being nominated in this category, “he told the BBC.

The best category of African musical performance has been introduced as a means of honoring Africa’s growing influence on world music.

When Tyla won, she beat Nigerian heavyweights like Davido and Burna Boy, establishing her place on the international scene.

Since then, the 22 -year -old has been spotted at Met Gala in New York and was presented in fashion magazines, proving that the grammys effect is real.

The nominees for this year, however, moved almost entirely to Nigerian artists, with Yemi Alade, Burna Boy, Tems and a joint appointment for Asake & Wizkid, as well as Davido and Lojay with the success of Chris Brown.

“To be fair to Chris Brown, he has been invested in Afrobeats and African music for a long time,” said Tayo, explaining that the American musician flew to Nigeria to collaborate with Davido and Wizkid.

“We have an interior joke in Nigeria that we say that Chris Brown is Nigerian, because of the way he appears in our songs and our clips.”

Last month, he also organized two concerts with a massive closed counters in a stadium of 90,000 places in Johannesburg – with people traveling from all southern Africa to see his performance, which, according to fans, was electrifying.

African musicians won grammys long before the best African musical performance price was created.

Mariam Makeba in South Africa was the first to win one – the best folk recording – in 1966 for his collaboration with Harry Belafonte, called Simply an evening with Belafonte / Makeba.

African artists have become more a feature film after 1992, with the introduction of the best world music album.

This category has undergone various forms over the years – including the distribution of traditional and contemporary world music prices – and is now known as the best world music album.

Multi-reacked winners include Angélique Kidjo, Youssou N’Dour, Ali Farka Touré and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.

But African musicians often broke out in this category, for example, the Black Coffee in South Africa won the best dance / electronic album in 2022.

Hope is that to counter the domination of Afrobeats, other categories of Africa will be offered to the Grammys in the years to come.

This would cover popularity in constant increase in African music in the world – and would better reflect the large number of music styles produced in Africa.