The Grammy Awards, awards of the American music industry, announced Tuesday that they will award from their next edition a gramophone to the best performance of African music, a new sign of their quest for diversity and a consecration for the genre.
This new award includes many styles, from Afrobeat to Afro-fusion, including Kwassa Kwassa and Ndombolo from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana drill, Afro-House or South-South hip-hop. African, said in a press release the Recording Academy, which brings together professionals in the music industry.
The category will reward “recordings that use the unique local expressions of the African continent,” add the Grammys organizers.
Long accused of not sufficiently reflecting the diversity and developments in the music industry, the Grammy Awards have been seeking for years to broaden the range of styles and registers of awards. The category of the best soundtrack for a video game was thus added in 2022.
Musicians from countries on the African continent, such as the Franco-Beninese Angélique Kidjo (5 wins, 14 nominations) or the Nigerian Burna Boy (one win, 6 nominations), regularly dominate the “world music” categories of the Grammys.
At the 65th edition on February 5 in Los Angeles, a trio led by South African DJ-producer Zakes Bantwini, pillar of local house, won thanks to a title in Zulu in the best music performance category of the world.
The 2024 edition will also honor two other new categories: best alternative jazz album and best dance pop recording.
In 2023, 91 awards were handed out in as many categories, notably in the genres of pop, rock, classical music, hip-hop, gospel, or country.