Burna Boy Breaks Record, Brings Home First Grammy Award For Sunny Ade, Femi Kuti, Olatunji After 37 Years
By Jumu’ah Abiodun
Grammy, is an award presented by the Recording Academy to recognize achievements in the music industry.
It is considered as one of the four major annual American entertainment awards, along with the Academy Awards (film), the Emmy Awards (television), and the Tony Awards (theatre and Broadway).
The first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4, 1959, to honour and respect the musical accomplishments of performers for the year 1958. Following the 2011 ceremony, the Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012.
This year is the ultimate year of wins for multiple award-winning Afrofusion pioneer, Burna Boy as he bags the much-coveted Grammy award in the ‘Best Global Album’ category for his ‘TWICE AS TALL’ album.
He was nominated alongside Tuareg Desert Rock group Tinariwen, NYC afrobeat outfit Antibalas, Brazilian-American Bebel Gilberto, and British-Indian sitar player Anoushka Shankar.
Worldtopnewsng.com investigation revealed that King Sunny Ade was the first Nigerian to be nominated for the prestigious award 37 years ago, he was nominated for the ‘Best Ethnic or Traditional Folks Recording’ category with his original work Syncro System. Sunny Ade was nominated again in 1999 for “Best World Album” with Odu.
READ ALSO: Seun Kuti Gets Grammy nomination
In 1998, Babatunde Olatunji was nominated for ‘Best World Album’ with his original work, ‘Love Drum Talk’.
Worldtopnewsng.com gathered that the eldest son of late multi-instrumentalist and Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Femi was nominated for the award in 2003, 2010, 2012 and 2014 for “World Best Album” and “Best Contemporary World Music Album” with “Fight to Win”, “Day by Day”, “Africa for Africa” and “No Place for My Dream” respectively.
A powerful #GRAMMYs acceptance speech from @burnaboy, who just won a GRAMMY for Best Global Music Album.
Full winners list: https://t.co/JGlsnHnruB pic.twitter.com/PGfZxlIVfq
— Recording Academy / GRAMMYs (@RecordingAcad) March 14, 2021
In 2018, Seun Kuti & Egypt 80, was the last Nigerian nominated for his original work before Burna Boy made the list with “Black Times”.
READ ALSO: Wizkid Wins First Grammy Award With Beyonce’s ‘Brown Skin Girl’
Burna Boy is the fifth Nigerian artists to have been nominated in this category for the Grammy Awards and became the first Nigerian artist to win the award for his original work.
However, this is the second consecutive time Burna Boy has been nominated for the Grammys. His previous album, ‘African Giant’ was nominated at the 62nd Grammy Awards for ‘Best World Music Album’, the award went to Beninoise singer, Angélique Kidjo who dedicated the award to Burna Boy and said he was leading the pack of young Africans who will shake up the global music space.
With a captivating performance at the 63rd annual Grammy Awards held Sunday night, Burna Boy was a vision as he brought down the house in a powerful medley of his songs, starting with the chorus of “20:10: 20” to “Level Up’ to ‘Onyeka’ and ‘Ye’, complemented by his band ‘The Outsiders’ whose reworked musical arrangement was nothing short of ethereal excellence.
READ ALSO: Afrika Shrine Represents Culture, Strength, Music Of The Continent, Says French President, Macron
The Annual Grammy Awards which recognizes the best recordings, compositions and artists of the eligibility year, running from September 1, 2019, to August 31, 2020, deemed what is truly a great album ‘Twice as Tall’; where the Grammy award winner sang in at least three different languages, drew in artists from across Africa and across the diaspora to fuse his Afrofusion style into one percolating whole; as outstanding in its artistic achievement, technical proficiency and overall excellence in the recording industry.
One of the biggest contributors to the explosion of the Nigerian music scene, whose hybrid black-music style exploded in the last few years, the African Giant has in many ways earned his plaudits. From getting recognized by several notable platforms as the African artiste whose lead to follow, to the successes of his headline concerts, Burna is getting rewarded for the work he has put in over the last ten years and is poised to continue to enjoy the benefits with more good music.
#GrammyWinner #GRAMMYs ! 🦍 pic.twitter.com/4EhlxA3yCr
— Burna Boy (@burnaboy) March 14, 2021
Burna Boy’s recent wins include, the MTV European Music Awards (EMA) for ‘Best African Act’, The All Africa Music Awards album of the year and winner, ‘Best International Act’ for the Black Entertainment (BET) awards and The 2020 Dutch Edison Award for ‘World Album’. Burna Boy’s work and recognitions establish him as one of the biggest international acts in the world.
READ ALSO: 2021 Oscars: The Favourites For The Academy Awards
Thus, for the record, worldtopnewsng.com would take you through how artists have been making Nigeria and Africa proud with their contributions to foreign works in the industry.
Sikiru Adepoju in Global Drum Project by Various artists was nominated for “Best Contemporary World Music Album” in 2009 while Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie in “Beyonce by Beyonce” was nominated for “Album of the Year” in 2015.
Wizkid in Views by Drake was nominated for “Album of the Year” in 2017.
In 2021, “Brown Skin Girl” by Beyonce, Wizkid, Sain Jhn featuring Blue Ivy Carter was nominated for “Best Music Video”. They beat “Life Is Good,” Future Feat. Drake; “Lockdown,” Anderson .Paak; “Adore You,” Harry Styles; and “Goliath,” Woodkid to claim the award.
READ ALSO: Grammy Awards 2021: The Complete Winners List
The last Nigerian nominated before Wizkid was Faridah Seriki, known professionally as Kah-Lo for her contribution in “Rinse & Repeat” by British DJ Riton at the 59th Grammy Awards in 2017.
The report, compiled by Jumu’ah Abiodun, a Social Commentator and Columnist, was released early on Monday.
