None of the 10 Nigerian artists nominated in five categories in the 66th edition of the Grammy Awards held yesterday, was considered worthy of the global awards that holds annually in the United States.
The Nigerian afrobeats stars that were nominated were Burna Boy, Davido, Tems, Ayra Starr, Olamide and Asake, lost the inaugural ‘Best African Music Performance’ trophy to South-African singer Tyla who earned the prize with her 2023 track, “Water”.
Burna Boy and Davido lost to Shakti as the world fusion band won with the album, “This Moment”, ahead of Burna Boy’s “I Told Them”, Davido’s “Timeless” albums, and others. Also, they both were not considered for the Best Global Music Performance category, which was won by Indian composer Zakir Hussain for the track “Pashto” featuring Bela Fleck and Edger Meyer.
Lil Durk’s collaboration with J Cole, “All My Life” dashed Burna Boy’s hopes of winning any trophy out of four nominations by claiming the Grammy for Best Melodic Rap.
Tems who won her first Grammy last year in the Best Melodic Rap category for her collaboration with Future and Drake on the track ‘Wait for You’, lost in the Song Written for Visual Media category.
The Grammy Awards which held once again at Los Angeles saw performances from some of music’s biggest stars. Comedian and former “The Daily Show” host Trevor Noah returned to host the ceremony for the fourth time in a row.
SZA earned the most nominations of any artist this year with nine, including nods for album of the year, record of the year and song of the year. Although she had earned 15 Grammy nominations prior to this year’s selections, her sole win coming into Sunday was for best pop duo/group performance in 2022 for “Kiss Me More.”
Competing with SZA in the album of the year category was Taylor Swift and her 2022 album “Midnights.” A win in that category would give Swift four career album of the year awards, the most for any artist, the CBS News reported.
Serban Ghenea, an audio engineer and mixer who has worked with Swift and Olivia Rodrigo, earned seven nominations, along with Victoria Monét and Phoebe Bridgers, who got six nods with her band boygenius and one for her collaboration on SZA’s “Ghost in the Machine,” which earned the Grammy for best pop duo/group performance prior to the start of the televised show.
Several other awards were given out before the start of the show, including the new category, best pop dance recording, which went to Kylie Minogue for her track “Padam Padam.” The Beatles won best music video for “I’m Only Sleeping,” the group’s first Grammy since 1997.
And while the Oscars are still a few weeks away, “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer” both took home awards Sunday for best compilation soundtrack for visual media and best score soundtrack for visual media, respectively. Best song written for visual media also went to Billie Eilish and her brother Finneas for their song “What Was I Made For?” off “Barbie The Album.”
