Nigerians all but assured of glory at Grammy gala

It sometimes hurts, doesn’t it? To not see your own but the same constant faces walk down the prestigious aisle, climb onstage and breathless mumble out an often pre-rehearsed speech in acceptance of a trophy.

The world tells you to suppress that cocktail of emotions deep within your chest and instead clap in fair play. Show support for Africa. Clap until it’s the turn of your own.

Even though understanding the Grammy and the myriad variables that go into winning one trophy, your turn may or may not come.

Rapper Snoop Doggy, who has landed enough nominations but has never won a Grammy in his 30-plus years in musical career, serves as a good example.

But at the next year Grammy awards ceremony, someone is granted to win and it might not be one of your own. The 2025 Grammy nominations by the Recording Academy have rolled in and one thing that stands out is that Nigeria Afrobeats stars are assured of a win at next year’s gala in Los Angeles.

This is after winning a clean sweep of nominations for ‘Best African Musical Performance’ a category that every African artiste in the continent had a shot at but all went to Nigerians.

With the awarding ceremony set for February, it will mark only the second time the category has been awarded by the Academy in an effort to make the Grammys more representative.

For the second year running, Nigerians dominated the nominations. Burna Boy secured his sixth straight nomination for his hit song ‘Higher’ from the album ‘I Told Them’.

This year’s nomination marks Burna Boy as the only Nigerian with the highest Grammy nods so far. His first nomination was in 2020 for Best Global Music Album Category.

Rising stars

Davido also earned his second nod in the category for his contribution to American Chris Brown’s record ‘Sensational’ with Lojay also Nigerian, picking up his first Grammy nomination for the same song.

This is Davido’s fourth Grammy nomination in his career having been previously recognised in 2023 for his album ‘Timeless’ and tracks ‘Unavailable’ and ‘Feel’.

Asake, one of the Afrobeats genre’s rising stars, also earned a spot in the same category for his record ‘MMS’ a collaboration with another Afrobeats star Wizkid.

This is Asake’s second Grammy nod after the 2023 nomination for the record ‘Amapiano’, another collaboration with fellow Afrobeats star Olamide.

Yemi Alade also celebrates her second Grammy nomination for her song ‘Tomorrow’. She was first nominated for the Grammy’s in 2022 for the song ‘Dignity’ featuring 64-year-old Angelique Kidjo from Benin who has won five Grammy awards in her career. Kidjo has just landed her 15th Grammy nomination

Notably, Tems is the only Nigerian and African in the 2025 Grammys with the most nominations (three) across different categories.

Her debut album ‘Born in the Wild’ is up for the Best Global Music Album, Best R&B song for her hit ‘Burning' and Best African Music Performance for the song ‘Love Me Jeje’.

Rema, another Afrobeats sensation, also landed a nomination in the Best Global Music Album for his sophomore album ‘HEIS’.

Gained popularity

So, where does the clean Nigerian sweep in this year’s Best African Musical Performance category and their domination in these global prestigious awards over the last few years, leave the rest of the African artistes?

“What’s happening here is that the global music powers are gambling with African stars. Nominate lots of Nigerians and gain popularity in the continent. Nigerians make so much noise (music hype), so give them all the nominations. What the rest of Africa will do now about Nigerians taking all the nominations, will dictate what the next move will be (for the Recording Academy as far the continent is concerned,” argues John Muchiri, a seasoned Kenyan music commentator and journalist based in the United Kingdom.

In his observation, Afrobeats to the world is nascent around the Grammy circles and with Africa literally being the only blue water remaining, it is in the best interest of the Recording Academy to do what it must to gain popularity in the content and Afrobeats offers that.

Unlike Kenya, Tanzanians sparked online debate when arguably their finest star Diamond Platnumz was snubbed for the 2025 Grammys despite submitting his smash hit track ‘Komasava’, featuring American RnB sensation Jason Derulo for Best Music Video Category.

Sieving through the online comments, a majority of Tanzanian fans and industry stakeholders strongly felt Diamond’s song met Grammy standards and should have been nominated.

One of Tanzania's top-tier rappers and a leading critic of the music industry, Webiro Wakazi Wassira, believes Tanzanian artistes lack sufficient knowledge about the Grammys.

“I have followed debates on WhatsApp groups and online on Komasava being snubbed. We still need education about Grammys. The awards aren’t pegged on popularity of the songs, views and streams but rather on the general quality production of a track. The judges are experts in music production.

“The reason a majority of our artistes miss out is because they don’t know what is needed. Not anyone can submit their music to the Grammys. One has to be a member of the Academy. Record Label.

"To vote, you have to be in a Voting Academy Member and this only admits singers, songwriters, composers or producers recognised in America. So, if you are more popular to the Voting Academy than you are to the fans, then you stand a good chance of winning a Grammy and this is where Nigerians are good at,” Wakazi explains.

Marlon Fuentes, a former Grammys Global Music Manager, adds: “The more voting members from East Africa, the higher the chances of recognition. Music needs to be heard far and wide across different platforms.”

Latisha Mussa, an artist, believes lack of Voting Members from East Africa is another reason Nigerians continue to dominate the Grammys.

“Out of over 500 Recording Academy Voters, not a single one is East African, but there are more than 11 Nigerians. How do we expect Tanzanian music to compete under such circumstances?”

In 2013, there were over 11,000 Voting Members with 2,500 women added this year in the Voting Members list. Joey Akan, not a Voting member but a professional member of the Recording Academy, says Nigerians deserved to win big last year.

It felt unfair for them to be snubbed despite a year of success. South Africa's Tyla won the Best African Musical Performance category for her hit ‘Water’, beating Asake, Olamide, Davido, Ayra Starr and Burna Boy.

“The Grammys dons have finally done their Nigerian reset. Order has been restored to the world,” says Akan.

He says that whereas there is so much talent in Africa, Afrobeats has been the most outstanding one in the last couple of years.

Last year, one of the largest Digital Streaming Providers (DSP) in the world, Spotify, launched a dedicated website for Afrobeats, dubbed Afrobeats: Journey of a Billion Streams, stating that the genre had become one of the world’s most popular on its platform.

Milestones

“Afrobeats is one of Africa’s biggest musical exports and is currently taking the world by storm. On Spotify, the genre has grown by 550 per cent since 2017, and it was streamed more than 13 billion times in 2022, with its leading artists continuing to tick off giant milestones on the global music stage, across live events, awards and streaming.

"The site will act as a repository for this cultural phenomenon housing text, infographics and visual elements,” Spotify said in a statement on the launch. Spotify realised 7.1 billion streams of Afrobeats in 2023.

“There is no doubt that Afrobeats is here to stay, and will only continue to shatter more ceilings. This year, the genre has been played for more than 223 million hours with streams exceeding 7.1 billion on Spotify,” says Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy, Spotify’s Managing Director for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Although ‘Amapiano’ from South Africa is gaining traction by day on the continent, Afrobeats is still ahead having been able to break through into the international mainstream and music awards circuit, giving its stars more spotlight on international stage.

“It’s fashionable to fight for the Grammys, although we’re technically guests, invited to an American spectacle to diversify their ranks. We’re still fringe players at the Recording Academy with negligible numbers incapable of swinging odds in our favour. Today's lessons teach us that growth isn’t linear,” says Akan.