Nigeria: The Long, Tiring Road to the Grammys for Nigerian Acts

31 January 2020

You may be forgiven if you believe that no Nigerian has won the Grammy award. It is untrue. In 2007, percussionist and recording artiste Sikiru Adepoju claimed Grammy glory in the category of Best Contemporary World Music Album (not to be confused with Best World Music Album). He gained this win for being a contributing artiste on the album 'Global Drum Project'; a compilation effort featuring contributions from acts like Mickey Hart (USA), Zakir Hussain (India), Giovanni Hidalgo (Puerto Rico) among others.

Arguably, Nigerians have had ample representatives in the Best World Music Album (BWMA) category; seven times to be precise. BWMA honours acts projecting non-European, indigenous sounds on their album. The recent recipient of a nomination for Nigeria was Burna Boy for his 2019 album 'African Giant'. Before him, acts like Femi Kuti had earned two nods; one in 2012, and another in 2014. Seun Kuti, too, has had an experience with the Grammys two years ago for 'Black Times'. Other Nigerian musicians who received a nomination in this category for their work as a main act, but never won, including King Sunny Ade and Babatunde Olatunji.

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