The famous Grammy awards announced the introduction of a new category for the 2024 GRAMMYs which focuses primarily on African music, Wednesday, June 13th.
The Recording Academy added three new categories to the 2024 award ceremony including; Best African Music Performance, Best Alternative Jazz Album and Best Pop Dance Recording.
The has been seen as a response to criticism the Academy has received over lack of inclusion and appreciation of the evolution of the music industry.
The Best African Music Performance category recognizes recordings that utilize unique local expressions from across the African continent.
This includes but is not limited to Afrobeat, Afro-fusion, Afro Pop, Afrobeats, Alte, Amapiano, Bongo Flava, Genge, Kizomba, Chimurenga, High Life, Fuji, Kwassa, Ndombolo, Mapouka, Ghanaian Drill, Afro-House, South African Hip-Hop, and Ethio Jazz genres.
The Grammy Awards stated that the new Africa-specific category will highlight “regional melodic, harmonic and rhythmic musical traditions”.
Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr shared how the Academy was excited to honour and celebrate new artists through the introduction of these new categories.
“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,”Mason said.
Music that has been released from October 1st, 2022 and September 15, 2023 will be eligible for nominations at the 2024 GRAMMYs.
The development forms part of different amendments that were voted on and passed at the Recording Academy’s semi-annual board of trustees meeting last month.
