The Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr. says they have kicked off the process by meeting with the key players and creatives in the Afrobeats genre.
The Recording Academy CEO, Harvey Mason Jr., confirmed that Afrobeat would be recognized at the Grammys.
He confirmed this while speaking to the press at the Global Citizens Festival held in Accra, Ghana, on Saturday (Sept. 24).
During the interview, the CEO revealed that they had already started the process by meeting with the key players and creatives like artists, producers, songwriters, and executives in the Afrobeats Genre.
The CEO also confirmed that they had a meeting about six or seven days ago with leaders of the Afrobeats community and had a listening session.
A virtual listening session where they heard from Afrobeats creators to talk about the different subgenres, needs, and desires.
The goal was to categorize Afrobeat at the Grammys.
He further informed that members of The Academy would have to submit a proposal for the mission to go into effect.
He advised that the submissions are to be done properly as he does not decide on categories.
The categories are decided by proposals submitted by members. So the members can say, ‘Harvey, I want an Afrobeats category,’ they write a proposal, it comes into the academy, it gets voted on then we’ll have it
Afrobeat has become a global sensation.
Artists like Burna Boy, Blakko, Davido, Wizkid, and many others have pushed the genre passed Africa, making it one of the world’s leading genres in music.
While Afrobeats is basically a description of Nigerian and Ghanaian mainstream music, South African genres such as House, Amapiano, and Kwaito were also considered Afrobeats sub-genres.
Same with Congolese sounds like the Soukous or the East African Singile. These could all go up for a nomination at the Grammys.
