By Charles Mgbolu
Social media is still fired up since the conclusion of the 66th Grammy Awards, which has been trailed with mixed reactions over the choice of winners in the various categories.
The Grammys, which took place on February 5th, had many music fans on the African continent divided on the announcement of South African music star Tyla as winner of Best African Music Performance.
Davido's 'Unavailable', Asake & Olamide's 'Amapiano', Ayra Starr's 'Rush', and Burna Boy's 'City Boy' all lost in this category.
Tyla’s win makes the 22-year-old the youngest African artist to win the Grammy Award.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called Tyla after she won the award and congratulated her.
‘’You made me so proud, all of us so proud. It’s phenomenal. You have lifted all of us. You have put South Africa on the map; we are on the map once again,’’ Ramaphosa said.
As expected, there was wild jubilation online among South African fans, but Nigerian music fans have criticised the announcement.
Davido immediately congratulated Tyla on her win, but it did not douse the raging conversation on social media.
The hashtag #grammys began to trend on Nigerian social media spaces, with thousands calling out the Academy for not giving it to any of the Nigerian acts nominated.
They argued that the nominated Nigerian acts have had a successful year with hundreds of millions of downloads and streams.
South Africans have, however, defended Tyla's win, calling it ''deserved'' and that the degruntled Nigerian music fans are simply ''sour losers.''
The Grammy organisers were also openly called out by international artist Jay Z, who criticised the organisers for not giving American singer Beyonce the Album of the Year award, which another American singer Taylor Swift won.
Taylor Swift broke a record with her Grammy win by becoming the first performer to win Album of the Year four times in a row.
Jay Z, while accepting the Global Impact Award for American record producer and rapper Dr. Dre, asked the Grammys ‘’to get it right.’’
The President of the Recording Academy Board of Trustees, Harvey Mason, explained in an interview with journalists that the Academy decides the winner of every Grammy based on the opinion of the voting Academy members and the quality of the material presented.
‘’Grammy Academy members listen to it, and they evaluate it based on the quality of the art—not the sales, not the streams, not how many fans, not how many followers—that'show you win a Grammy. It is music professionals voting for their peers, period.’’
Nominated Nigerian music acts had to endure multiple knocks at the ceremony, with Davido's 'Feel' and Burna Boy's 'Alone' losing the Best Global Music Performance to 'Pashto' by Béla Fleck, Edgar Meyer, & Zakir Hussain, Featuring Rakesh Chaurasia.
In the Best Global Album category, Davido's 'Timeless' and Burna Boy's 'I Told Them' lost to Shakti's 'The Moment'.
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