Nigerian media personality Adesope Olajide has vented his spleen at the organisers of the Grammy Awards for “stabbing Davido in the back” at the 66th awards ceremony of the scheme.
In a video, Adesope indicated that the Grammy Awards are more interested in benefitting from African artistes than elevating them.
Apart from his disappointment in Davido and Burna Boy not winning awards in the Best Global Music Album and Best African Music Performance categories, he was also appalled by the fact that Fela Kuti’s ‘Water No Get Enemy’ was played while South African artistes Tyla was called to receive her award. He had expected that Tyla’s ‘Water’ which earned her the award would rather be played.
“I’ve always said that the Grammy Awards is not our thing. They don’t understand us. They don’t understand our culture, they don’t understand our music. They’re never gonna get it. Don’t get it twisted. The Grammy will never get anything that has to do with African music, African popular music and Afrobeats. They will never get it,” he said.
He reiterated that the Recoding Academy made a lot of gains from Davido while the ‘Unavailable’ hit maker went home with no award.
“As an Afrobeats fan, I am heart-broken. Grammy Awards benefited from the promo, I told them. Burna Boy I told them. The Grammy Awards and the Recording Academy benefited from the popularity of the Nigerians that were nominated, Davido and Burna Boy, especially the last one week what Davido did for the Grammys and al those interviews and promos they used him for marketing purposes and knowing fully well that s they do it, they were going to stab him in the heart and they completely used him and dumped him,” he noted.
To cap all, Adesope wants African musicians to stay away from the Grammys.
“I was just about to post to say this is over to the Headies now. African artistes, Afrobeats artistes, you all need to redraw yourselves from submitting your songs to the Grammys,” he said.
At the 66th Grammy Awards which was held on Sunday February 4, 2024, South Africa’s Tyla became the first artiste to win the Best African Music Performance category in the scheme.
The new category “recognizes recordings that utilize unique local expressions from across the African continent, highlighting regional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic musical traditions.”
Tyla won with the song ‘Water’ at the 66th Grammys. She beat off competition from Asake & Olamide (Amapiano), Burna Boy (Citi Boys), Davido ft Musa Keys (Unavailable), Ayra Starr (Rush).
Nigerian artistes Burna Boy and Davido did not only lose out on the Best African Music Performance category. The prize for the Best Global Music Album also eluded them.
This has stoked angst among some Nigerian music enthusiasts and stakeholders in Adesope who believe their artistes have not been treated fairly.
Source: Kwame Dadzie
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