Nigerian acts whose failure to win the award this year sparked off the controversy
It is beginning to look to me like some Nigerians are terrible losers when it comes to what went down at the Grammys recently; when our musicians are nominated for the American-owned award or win, we hail it to high heavens as the best thing that has ever happened to the world music industry, and when they fall our hands like they did this year we sob uncomfortably, describing the award body with the most unprintable words. But one thing we forget and ought to know is that the Grammy Award is not meant for African music/musicians and those from some other continent/countries and so we should be contented with whatever they throw at us. The award is for Americans and some other Caucasian countries and not for ‘dark’ continents like Africa and others. The founding fathers of the award never had our forms of music in mind when they founded the award, hence they lumped us into what they call ‘world music.’ Whatever that means, only they can explain! They are merely accommodating us in the award and we should be grateful for such honour and not be foaming in the mouth like epileptic patient when the award does not go our way. We are merely ‘joiners’ and should be thankful to God that they agreed to accommodate us.
Grammy is not decided by streaming or number of followers but by the act, creativity. It is not about commercial music. Not about how many albums sold or concerts/festivals featured in. It is about the art, period as attested to also by Paul Play Dairy in his Facebook timeline.
But beyond that, let us go into the background, criteria and politics of the award before we continue to rubbish the award. Come with me (apologies to Azuka Molokwu-Jebose).
Short historical background of the Grammys
The Grammy Awards are the most prestigious music award show featured each year. The Grammys are presented by The Recording Academy and recognise musicians of every age and every genre. The Grammy Awards culture, which began as The Gramophone Awards, first took place in 1958. At that time, The Academy Awards, also known as the Oscars, and The Emmy Awards both recognised the leading artistes in film and television, but no such musical equivalent existed. Following the Hollywood Walk of Fame project, which began in the 1950s, a renewed interest in music and the recording industry led to the creation of The Grammy Awards as a way to honour the music industry’s most talented composers, songwriters and musicians. Each year, an award is given in dozens of categories. TV viewers often see the most well-known artistes receiving awards, but there are actually dozens more that are not shown live on screen. The number of categories and Grammys awarded each year has fluctuated as more categories have been added and some have been retired. The very first Grammy Awards event included just 28 categories, while in 2019 there were 84 categories presented.
Lifetime Hall of Fame Award
The Lifetime Hall of Fame Award is given to an artiste who has made an outstanding impact on the music industry as a whole. In 2019, this award was given to Black Sabbath, Julio Iglesias, and other artistes. Other well-known artistes have received the Lifetime Hall of Fame Award at the annual Grammy Awards.
Grammy Hall of Fame Award
The Grammy Hall of Fame Award recognises significant musical compositions and songs by well-known artistes. If there’s a song you’re familiar with from decades past, chances are it’s received the Grammy Hall of Fame Award. The award is given by a vote of special committee members comprised of music industry professionals and historians who have recognised thousands of works of many famous recording artistes, including:
“Always on My Mind,” by Willie Nelson “At Last,” by Etta James “Bohemian Rhapsody,” by Queen “Boom Boom,” by John Lee Hooker “California Dreamin’,” by The Mamas & the Papas “Dream On,” by Aerosmith “Fortunate Son,” by Creedence Clearwater Revival “Georgia on My Mind,” by Ray Charles “Good Vibrations,” by The Beach Boys “Hotel California,” by The Eagles “Hound Dog,” by Elvis Presley “I Can’t Get No Satisfaction,” by The Rolling Stones “I Get Around,” by The Beach Boys “I’ve Got the World on a String,” by Frank Sinatra “Jailhouse Rock,” by Elvis Presley “Jolene,” by Dolly Parton “Like a Rolling Stone,” by Bob Dylan “Margaritaville,” by Jimmy Buffet “Mr. Tambourine Man,” by Bob Dylan “My Way,” by Frank Sinatra “On the Road Again,” by Willie Nelson “Paint It Black,” by The Rolling Stones “Proud Mary,” by Creedence Clearwater Revival “Purple Rain,” by Prince “Respect,” by Aretha Franklin “Ring of Fire,” by Johnny Cash “Shout,” by The Isley Brothers, and “Sitting On the Dock of the Bay,” by Otis Redding, among others.
Who has won the most Grammys?
Conductor Sir Georg Solti has an impressive 31 Grammy Awards, while recording artiste, Alison Krauss, follows closely behind with 27 and U2 leads the list of the most Grammys won by a group at 22.
Who votes in the Grammy Awards?
The process of voting for the Grammy Award nominees includes hundreds of music experts in various genres. The first step in the process involves recording studios and Recording Academy members submitting their entries for consideration.
FUN FACT: Only members in good standing who have paid their yearly dues are able to vote in The Grammy Awards. Once a panel of experts has screened each of these entries for eligibility (production year, appropriate genre or category, etc.), the entries are then voted on in a ballot by Recording Academy members. Members are only able to vote in categories they have the most expertise in as well as the four main categories: Best New Artistes Song of the Year Album of the Year Record of the Year
These ballots are then sent to an independent accounting firm which tallies the votes and provides a list of final nominations to be considered by the national review committee.
FUN FACT: Independent accounting firm Deloitte tallies the votes for The Grammy Awards.
Final nominees are then voted on by Academy members, and the votes are once again tallied by an independent accounting firm. The results are sealed in envelopes, which are not revealed until the award ceremony.
How is a Grammy award made?
Each Grammy is created by hand using a material called grammium, a zinc alloy composition created by Billings Artworks in Ridgway, Colorado. Each year, awards are created and engraved with the name of winners following the ceremony. Because the awards are not distributed until after the award show, props are used during filming each year.
Grammy Award Exhibit at The Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville, TN.
Want to learn more about the history of the Grammys?
At The Musicians’ Hall of Fame in Nashville, you can visit the interactive Grammy Museum Gallery to learn more about past award shows, past Grammy Award winners, and past Grammy Award nominees.
Fun Things to Do in Nashville
Guests of the Grammy Museum Gallery at The Musicians’ Hall of Fame also have the opportunity to experience a live recording studio and learn more about the process involved in creating a Grammy Award-winning album or song. Kids and adults of all ages can enjoy a variety of musical instruments and experiment with a real mixing board or provide backup vocals for Ray Charles in a sound studio.
It was not until 1966 that South Africa’s Miriam Makeba, also known as Mama Africa, became the first African recording artiste to win the Grammy Awards seven clear years after the award was first held. Meaning that it took the founding fathers, almost a decade before accommodating music from Africa. Till date, the east African country of Kenya has won the award a record nine times and Benin Republic’s Angelique Kidjo has won the award five times and was a joint winner with Burna Boy.
Marian Makeba, first African to win Grammy.
I have taken this long route to show that, in terms of achievement on the Grammy log, Nigeria is nowhere near Morocco, with six awards, Cape Verde, seven awards, and Cameroun, eight awards, and we are the country that makes the loudest noise (like empty vessels) each time we lose out. We should learn to be good sportsmen: win or lose, we should go home and prepare for a better outing next time or stop submitting our works for the award and revive our Nigerian Music Awards (NMA), which the Performing Musicians Employers’ Association of Nigeria (PMAN) started in the days of Chief Tony Okoroji as its president and was almost rivaling the Grammys in popularity and attendance. Or, better still, let us rally round Mike Dada and his AFRIMA Awards that he has taken to several African countries and is still going.
The lack of transparency in Africans has led to the collapse of KORA Awards; another beautiful award system for African musicians. It is not certain if KORA has paid Femi Anikulapo-Kuti, who was the first Nigerian to win the award in 1999 in South Africa, the prize money of $10,000 it promised him for winning the award. The real thing that dealt the deadly blow on KORA was when the organisers of the award tried to ‘sell’ the hosting right of the award to Lagos State under Babatunde Fashola after collecting hosting right fee from Cross River State and the latter threatened to go to court, and that was how KORA fled Nigeria and it died a natural death after the one it held in South Africa in, which Wadada was one of the winners.
The worst of them all is the Headies, which in what looks like ‘colomentality,’ suddenly decided that America was the best place to host the award event, after making its name in Nigeria; the organisers are using naira to fund the award in America where they do not make a dime from. The bulk of the money the organisrs make is from Nigeria, yet no city in Nigeria or Africa is good enough to host the award.
With this kind of mentality, why won’t the organisers of the Grammys rubbish our acts, if truly they deserve the award more than those that won it recently?
It is time for us to stop bellyaching and establish our own award system or revive the ones we had before, if we want the world to take us seriously.
