The Grow, Unite, Build, Africa (GUBA) Enterprise and Rolling rock hosted the second annual African Nominees Brunch on Saturday in Beverly Hills, celebrating a landmark year for African representation at the Grammy Awards this weekend.
The brunch is one of the liveliest events of the entire Grammy weekend. This year's celebration marks the second time GUBA has hosted the Nominee Brunch and the first time Rolling rock has signed a partner, and this weekend's gathering was particularly notable as Sunday's Grammys mark a new category that will bring increased visibility to African music: Best African Music Performance.
The nominees for the inaugural award are Asake and Olamide's 'Amapiano', Burna Boy's 'City Boys', Davido's 'Unavailable' featuring Musa Keys, Ayra Starr's 'Rush' and Tyla's 'Water' .
The global influence of African music has exploded in recent years, thanks to the rise in popularity of Afropop and its subgenres such as Afrobeats in Nigeria and Ghana and Amapiano in South Africa.
“This is just the beginning of the journey for our organization to significantly embrace the culture of the continent,” Recording Academy president Panos Panai said at the event on Saturday. “This is a big step, it's us as an Academy really embracing what we know is a fundamental change and ultimately the continent's claim on a world stage. It's incredible to be here to celebrate this music, this culture from this continent — it's about time.”
The event kicked off with a performance by dance group AfroMekah, choreographed to some of the songs nominated for Best African Music Performance, including “Water” and “Unavailable”.
Panay singled out Recording Academy CEO Harvey Mason Jr., who similarly spoke of the importance of highlighting African music as so many genres from the continent have flourished.
“Times are different, everything has changed and the Academy is a different Academy,” Mason said. “A big part of that is the music we're celebrating, and a lot of the music we're celebrating right now is music from the continent of Africa.”
Following the announcement of the new category, some African music industry insiders stressed the importance – and potential challenges – of this award properly representing the entirety of a largely diverse African diaspora, not just what is notable in the more mainstream and Western public.
At the brunch, Mason and Panay described this year's inaugural award as the first step in a longer line of progress with African music that they hope to see from the Academy in the future.
“I am excited to hear and learn from many of you. We don't know everything,” Mason said. “I love Afrobeats, Amapiano, but we don't know everything about all the music and all the talent happening everywhere in the world. So I'm counting on all of you to help inform us, educate us so we understand how to serve.
“And it's not just the trophies,” he continued. “Trophies are fun, but they're also about all the other work the Academy can do to help build music, infrastructure and ecosystems. And not only in Los Angeles and New York, but also in other countries [and] other cities around the world.”
The Grammys will air on CBS at 8 p.m. ET on Sunday.
from our partners at https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/rolling-stone-guba-african-grammy-category-nominees-brunch-1234960338/
