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Getty Images<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\nThe Grammy Awards has a dedicated space for African music, but just a year after the category’s introduction it is already proving contentious.<\/p>\n The Best African Music Performance made its debut with South Africa’s Tyla winning for her hit song Water, a blend of South African amapiano and Afropop.<\/p>\n It was a move welcomed across the industry, especially by African artists.<\/p>\n But the nominations for this year’s award have raised eyebrows, especially with the inclusion of US R&B star Chris Brown.<\/p>\n The 35-year-old has been nominated for his chart-topping single Sensational, which incorporates Afrobeats elements and features guest vocals from Nigerian artists Davido and Lojay.<\/p>\n However, the participation of an American artist in an African music category has sparked some debate.<\/p>\n Should non-African artists be considered in a category meant to showcase African talent?<\/p>\n “Music is about inclusivity. We don’t want to fence people out of genres,” Grammy CEO Harvey Mason Jr tells the BBC.<\/p>\n “If we start deciding who can or can’t make a certain type of music, we lose the essence of creativity.”<\/p>\n The head of the Grammys explains that such cross-fertilisation is expected.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n <\/p>\n “We’ve seen it with Latin before, we’ve seen it with K-Pop and now you’re starting to see it with Afrobeats and amapiano,” he says.<\/p>\n “We like to honour all music [regardless of] where it comes from or who makes it. If it’s excellent we want to celebrate it.”<\/p>\n Another bone of contention this year is the dominance of Afrobeats, which has its roots in Nigeria and Ghana.<\/p>\n There is a feeling that the Grammys remain too focused on it, to the exclusion of other African music genres, despite calls for inclusivity.<\/p>\n Nigerian music journalist Ayomide Tayo says he understands why Afrobeats is dominating this year’s awards.<\/p>\n “I don’t think Afrobeats is better,” he tells the BBC.<\/p>\n “It’s just that Afrobeats has had over three decades of exposure. We consistently pushed great music, superstars and events that have attracted the world to it,” Lagos-based Tayo explains.<\/p>\n Nigerians living abroad have also played a crucial role in the popularisation of Afrobeats.<\/p>\n “The Nigerian diaspora in England and North America is one of the key factors why Afrobeats exploded in Europe and the US,” Tayo says.<\/p>\n While other Africa-based music business professionals see a bright future for other African music genres, saying this year could be a one-off.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n For example, amapiano, a genre that in 2023 surpassed 1.4 billion streams on the music app Spotify.<\/p>\n Raphael Benza, head of Johannesburg-based record label Vth Season, says the very name Best African Performance goes against pigeonholing.<\/p>\n “Coming from the home of amapiano, I would say [musicians] are doing extremely good work and I think next year you’ll see amapiano artists being nominated in this category,” he tells the BBC.<\/p>\n The Best African Music Performance category was introduced as a way to honour Africa’s increasing influence on global music.<\/p>\n When Tyla won, she beat Nigerian heavyweights like Davido and Burna Boy, establishing her place on the international stage.<\/p>\n Since then, the 22-year-old has been spotted at the Met Gala in New York and has been featured in top fashion magazines, proving that the Grammys effect is real.<\/p>\n This year’s nominees, however, have shifted almost entirely to Nigerian artists, with Yemi Alade, Burna Boy, Tems and a joint nomination for Asake & Wizkid, as well as Davido and Lojay featuring on Chris Brown’s hit.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “To be fair to Chris Brown, he has been invested in Afrobeats and African music for a long time,” says Tayo, explaining that the US musician flew to Nigeria to collaborate with Davido and Wizkid.<\/p>\n “We have an inside joke in Nigeria that we say Chris Brown is Nigerian, because of the ways he pops up in our songs and our music videos all the time.”<\/p>\n Last month, he also held two massive sell-out concerts at a 90,000-seater stadium in Johannesburg – with people travelling from across southern Africa to see his performance, which fans said was electrifying.<\/p>\n African musicians have won Grammys long before the Best African Music Performance Award was established.<\/p>\n South Africa’s Mariam Makeba was the first to win one – Best Folk Recording – in 1966 for her collaboration with Harry Belafonte, called simply An Evening with Belafonte\/Makeba.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n African artists became more of a feature after 1992, with the introduction of the Best World Music Album.<\/p>\n That category has gone through various guises over the years – including being split into traditional and contemporary world music awards – and is now known as Best Global Music Album.<\/p>\n Multi-award winners include Ang\u00e9lique Kidjo, Youssou N’Dour, Ali Farka Tour\u00e9 and Ladysmith Black Mambazo.<\/p>\n But African musicians have often broken out of that category for example, South Africa’s Black Coffee won Best Dance\/Electronic Album in 2022.<\/p>\n The hope is that to counter the dominance of Afrobeats, more categories from Africa will be offered at the Grammys in years to come.<\/p>\n This would cover the ever-growing popularity of African music globally – and better reflect the huge number of music styles produced in Africa.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n![\"Getty](\"https:\/\/ichef.bbci.co.uk\/news\/480\/cpsprodpb\/acaa\/live\/cb48efa0-dfee-11ef-bd1b-d536627785f2.jpg.webp\")
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