There are now more chances for Malawian star Patience Namadingo to realise his dream of bringing home a ‘Grammy’ as organisers have now added African content in next year’s competition.
The organisers, Recording Academy, earlier this week announced that three new categories have been added ahead of the 2024 Grammy Awards, giving a chance African stars to raise the continental flag.
According to a statement from Recording Academy, the newly added African categories include; best African music performance, best alternative jazz album and best pop dance recording.
,Vz
The Recording Academy statement signed by its Chief Executive Officer Harvey Mason Jr, states that the development is a feedback to a request from the music fraternity and seeks to recognise African music.
“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.
“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,” reads part of the statement.
This means, African musicians will now duke it out in a dedicated African music category rather than competing for best global music performance as it was in previous competitions.
In trying to highlight “regional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic musical traditions,” genres including Afrobeats, amapiano, highlife, alte, fuji and kwassa will be eligible for nomination.
The creation of the category is a golden opportunity for Malawian star Namadingo, who has in the past talked about his desire to bring home an international award.
In 2020, he posted on Facebook that he would win an international award in 2021.
“2021 BET Awards. I’ll bring 2 to Malawi. That’s a promise. Namafans screenshot this.”
The Grammy which was founded in the 1950s by the Recording Academy, is a prestigious accolade which recognises and champions music in a given year.
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