The 66th Grammy Awards delivered a night of mixed feelings for Nigeria, as all nominated artists from the country missed out on the coveted awards across ten nominations in five categories.
The notable upset occurred in the inaugural Best African Music Performance category, where South Africa’s Tyla beat six Nigerian contenders with her 2023 track “Water.”
The 19-year-old singer, who rose to fame with her viral TikTok song “Getting Late”, became the first artist to win the new award, celebrating excellence in African music.
“This is for Africa, this is for the culture, this is for the future. I’m so grateful to be here and to share this moment with you all,” said Tyla in her acceptance speech.
While some Nigerian artists graciously acknowledge Tyla’s historic win against
Burna Boy and Davido, both nominated in the Best Global Music Album and Best Global Music Performance categories were outshined by Shakti and Zakir Hussain, respectively. Shakti, a world fusion band composed of musicians from India, England, and the US, won with his album “This Moment.”
Hussain, an Indian tabla player, won with his track “Pashto” featuring Bela Fleck and Edger Meyer.
Burna Boy, who had four nominations in total missed out on the Best Melodic Rap award, which went to Lil Durk and J Cole for their collaboration “All My Life”. The acclaimed African giant was expected to perform his nominated track “Sittin’ on Top of The World” with Tiwa Savage but the performance was cancelled due to technical issues.
Another Nigerian artist who failed to repeat her previous Grammy success was Tems, who won the Best Melodic Rap award last year for her feature on Future and Drake’s “Wait for You”.
This year, Tems was nominated for the Best Song Written for Visual Media award, for her collaborative work on Rihanna’s “Lift Me Up”, the theme song for the 2023 film “Barbie”.
She lost to Billie Eilish, who won with her song “What Was I Made For”, written for the 2023 film “The Little Mermaid”.
Despite the losses, some Nigerian artists have shown sportsmanship by congratulating Tyla on her historic win. Davido and Ayra Starr, who collaborated with Tyla on her hit song “Girl Next Door”, took to their social media accounts to praise the young singer.
“Congratulations on your win @Tyllaaaaaaa ! Big One for Africa! Keep soaring!,” Davido wrote on his X page.
On her X handle on Monday morning, Ayra Starr wrote: “Congratulations to my babessssss @Tyllaaaaaaa.”
However, not everyone was happy with the Grammy results. Davido’s hypeman, Special Spesh, slammed the Grammy organisers for having a bias against Afrobeats and other African genres”
Hosted by the South African-born Trevor Noah, the 66 Grammy Awards Ceremony featured performances by Adele, Bruno Mars, Beyoncé, Kendrick Lamar, Taylor and Swift.
The biggest winners of the night were Billie Eilish, who won six awards, including Album of the Year and Record of the Year, and Lil Nas X, who won five awards, including Song of the Year and Best New Artist.
