The Grammys Announce New African Music Category
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Last year, the Recording Academy announced that they had plans to create an Afrobeats award category and nine months later, they made it happen.
On Tuesday (June 13), the Academy added three new categories that will be introduced at the 2024 Grammys — Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album, and Best Pop Dance Recording. The breakdown of the Best African Music Performance category states, “A track and singles category that recognizes recordings that utilize unique local expressions from across the African continent. Highlighting regional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic musical traditions, the category includes but is not limited to the Afrobeat, Afro-fusion, Afro Pop, Afrobeats, Alte, Amapiano, Bongo Flava, Genge, Kizomba, Chimurenga, Highlife, Fuji, Kwassa, Ndombolo, Mapouka, Ghanaian Drill, Afro-House, South African Hip-Hop, and Ethio Jazz genres.”
“The Recording Academy is proud to announce these latest category changes to our Awards process. These changes reflect our commitment to actively listen and respond to the feedback from our music community, accurately represent a diverse range of relevant musical genres, and stay aligned with the ever-evolving musical landscape,” Harvey Mason Jr., chief executive officer of the Recording Academy, said in a statement. “By introducing these three new categories, we are able to acknowledge and appreciate a broader array of artists — and relocating the producer of the year and songwriter of the year categories to the general field ensures that all our voters can participate in recognizing excellence in these fields.”