Grammys: Why Wizkid was overlooked in the Global Music Category

The results of Sunday’s 64th Annual Grammy Awards for the Global Music Category stunned Afrobeats enthusiasts. Despite several other intriguing nominations, Wizkid, the Afrobeats star who was a strong favorite to win one or both of the Global Music Album and Global Music Performance categories, was overlooked.

Beninese singer/songwriter Angélique Kidjo took home the Global Music Album for her Album ‘Mother Nature’ making her the most awarded African Grammy winner with 4 wins in 2015, 2016, and 2020 in what was then called Best World Music Album and now 2022. While 37-year-old Brooklyn-based Pakistani vocalist, Arooj Aftab scored her first Grammy, winning the first-ever Best Global Performance category for her song ‘Mohabbat’.

Criteria to win the Global Music Categories

The pattern must be understood in order to gain a good idea of how musicians win in this area. According to the Academy website, voting members are only expected to pick and vote in the Fields & Categories in which they work on a daily basis, and to base their decisions entirely on the artistic and technical merits of qualifying works throughout the Grammy Voting Season.

The name of the category was changed from “The World Music Category” to “Global Music Category” in 2021 to make it more current, modern, and inclusive.

The shift, according to the Academy, represents a departure from the former term’s overtones of colonialism, traditional, folk, and ‘non-American,’ while also adjusting to current listening trends.

That however has clearly not been the case based on the nomination and result in that category compared to current listening trends of mainstream Afrobeats, Afropop, which is a cultural evolution of African music among new listeners of diverse communities locally and globally.

‘Made in Lagos’ not traditional Enough?

Angelique Kidjo who is no stranger to winning in the Global music category has won mostly on the basis of her album being socio-politically influenced by traditionally themed music videos (at least till the change to ‘Global Music’). It was for this reason according to music journalists and experts that had her win the Grammys 2020 World Music Category over Burna Boy ‘African Giant’ which was a strong favorite to win – at least to the Nigerian music audience.

Burna released his fifth studio album Twice As Tall in 2020, which was infused with a lot of socio-political topics and had some of the album’s music videos traditionally themed, and it won him the Grammy for that category, despite the fact that the voting system had changed due to the switch from world to global music.

While Wizkids’ Made in Lagos was the most successful album among those nominated, he did not win since the record is regarded as an Afropop-RnB album rather than a traditional African-themed album.

Legacy+ by Femi Kuti and Made Kuti was more indigenously African than both Mother Nature and Made in Lagos combined, according to music analysts and professionals who provided insight, but it didn’t win.

Motolani Alake a music expert and Journalist said in his Twitter post “it’s about familiarity and perception bias, which breeds favoritism. It’s a thing of who suited the bias previously and subsequent occurrences favoring them,” He said.

Commercial success vs Critical Acclaim

Kidjo has collaborated with young African producers and singers, including Yemi Alade, Burna Boy, Mr. Eazi, Zeynab, Shungudzo, Sampa The Great, Rexxie, and African legend Salif Keita, and French singer Matthieu Chedid, to release her Mother Nature album.

The rhythms are a mix of modern and traditional blended with state-of-the-art production values, according to The Sunday Times, while The Financial Times termed the album “a rallying pan-African collaboration.” This alone appears to be a perfect Grammy recommendation.

Burna Boy, Skepta, H.E.R., Ella Mai, Tay Iwar, Projexx, Tems, Damian Marley, and Terri all made guest appearances on Wizkid’s “Made in Lagos.” The deluxe edition which was released in August 2021 had additional guest appearances from Buju and Justin Bieber.

The album’s diversity resulted in more sound inclusion, which translated into higher streaming figures for the artist. Made in Lagos set multiple African streaming records within a week of its release and spent over 75 weeks on the US world charts, the longest of any African album.

Mohabbat over Essence?

There were more question marks in this category’s result. ‘Essence,’ which was also nominated for the newly created Best Global Performance category, was expected to get a nod based on its popularity, critical acclaim, and commercial success if the ‘Made in Lagos’ Album was not good enough for the Academy voters to give it a win despite the huge global successes for strategic reasons.